PHILADELPHIA (Sept. 19, 2011) - Sara Burinato has quickly etched her named into the NYIT record books this week as she became the first women's tennis player to win the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) East Regional singles championship. She won four straight matches, beginning on Saturday, Sept. 17, to reach the finals on Monday where she came from behind to defeat Yuliya Plevako of Concordia 2-6, 6-2, 6-2. 

Burinato will travel to Mobile, Ala., for the ITA National Small College Championship on Oct. 13-16. The event will be held at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center. NYIT women's tennis is in its second season as an intercollegiate athletic program and this was the Bears first trip to Regionals.

"It is an amazing feeling to have won the East Regional," said Burinato. "The first match was difficult. My opponent had three match points but I just fought. I had really great support from my team and coach. I am excited to go to Nationals and represent NYIT."

After earning a No. 9 seed and a first round bye, Burinato, a freshman from Barcelona, Spain, battled through a tough match Saturday evening against Queens College's Francesca Fachin. Burinato lost the first set 6-7(5) in a tie breaker and was then down 2-5 in the second set facing match point. She fought all the way back to win 7-5 and then went 10-6 in a super tiebreaker to win the match. 

From there, she topped Kristyna Nepivodova of University of D.C. 6-3, 6-0 in the third round and was victorious over third-seeded Linda Tatala-Colin of Queens College 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Burinato defeated fourth-seeded Alena Mukdaprokorn of Southern New Hampshire 6-1, 6-2.

"I knew all along that Sara had the ability to win the championship," said interim NYIT head women's tennis coach Chris Frusci. "Once she pulled of that comeback against Fanchin, she was in a zone. She was challenged by all the top players in the region and found a way to fight through it all, playing three matches a day."

In doubles play, Burinato and partner Gaby Rodriguez (Hermosilla-Sonora, Spain) earned a No. 3 seed and advanced to the championship match where they fell 6-1, 6-2 to Tatala-Colin and Erika Goldsmith of Queens College. Burinato and Rodriguez are now 9-1 on the season and 6-0 in match play.

Rocio Benavent (Valencia, Spain) also had a great showing at the ITA Regionals. She earned a No. 7 seed and advanced to the quarterfinals were she fell 6-2, 7-6 to Nastia Shcherbakova of Chestnut Hill. En route, Benavent defeated Diana Vamvakitas of Southern New Hampshire 4-6, 6-1, 10-6 in the second round and Phoebe Chiem of Queens College 6-4, 1-6, 10-4 in the third round. 

The men's tennis team had Dustin Wenchel (Ladenburg, Germany) compete in singles action and Wenchel and Pedro Peixoto (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) in doubles play. The duo advanced to the quarterfinals but fell 8-3 to Andrade/Ewels of Queens College. Wenchel lost in the third round of singles play 6-1, 2-6, 10-6 to Diego Medrano of Queens College. 

The women's tennis team returns to action on Wednesday, Sept. 21 when the Bears host the Pioneers of C.W. Post in East Coast Conference action. First serve is 3 p.m. at the NYIT Tennis Complex.