PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Barry University women's tennis players Linda Fritschken and Emma Onila won the ITA South Region Championships doubles title Monday at the University of West Florida.
Fritschken and Onila, the tournament's No. 2 seed, beat Lynn's top-seeded Ioana Ivan and Val Confalonieri, 8-2, to win the region championship.
"It's very nice to know that we had a good tournament to start the season," Fritschken said.
Serving while tied 2-2 and facing break point, the Bucs fended off the Fighting Knights duo in a long game to go ahead 3-2. Down 40-0 in the next game, Barry's tandem bounced back to break the Lynn pair's serve and win the game, en route to rattling off six straight games to win the title.
"We stayed really aggressive," Onila said. "I took control of the net when it was my turn. We kind of didn't give them the opportunity to take control. We stayed in control the whole match."
Fritschken and Onila played their best tennis when their backs were against the wall in the fifth and sixth games.
"I think it was the most important part of the match because once we broke them after that they slowed down, and we took control," Onila said.
And they did it by playing smart, calculated tennis.
"We knew it was really important that we were always leading in the doubles," Fritschken said. "We were really focused, and we took our chances right away. We didn't try to make any crazy shots, we were just really concentrating on executing our shots."
Onila, seeded No. 8, fell to the second-seeded Confalonieri, 5-7, 7-6, 6-2, in the singles championship.
Down 3-0 and 4-2 in the first set, Onila came back to win the set by taking five of the last six games. In the second set, Onila led 5-4 before eventually losing in the tiebreak.
""The first set, it was pretty tight," Onila said. "In the second set, I was tired. I gave everything. It didn't come out in my advantage.
"I felt like it was a really good weekend for me. I improved a lot in different aspects of my game, physically and mentally. I'm just really happy I'm progressing."