Cary Gibson loses in three sets in the NCAA Singles final

Down a set and trailing 5-1 in the second, Cary Gibson mounted one of her patented comeback attempts, only this time she came up short and Siobahn Finicane of Pomona-Pitzer won the NCAA Singles crown.

Finicane defeated Gibson 6-3 in the first set, but could only marvel at Gibson's resilience in the second set as Gibson overcame a 5-1 deficit to win the second 7-5 and force a third set.

"It was a great tennis match," noted Eph head coach Alison Swain. "They both play so aggressively it was fun for all of the coaches and fans to watch."

The third set belonged to Finicane and she won the title with a 6-2 closeout in the final set. "Siobahn has such a powerful serve that she forces you behind the backline and she has good return strokes from the backline, plus she gets to a lot of balls," said Swain. "Cary knew going in she would have to play great tennis to win."

Finicane, the top seed in the tournament and a semifinalist a year ago, defeated the Ephs top two singles players in consecutive days in Gibson (1) and Grace Baljon (2) to collect individual honors. Gibson became the first Eph player to win a semifinal singles match at the NCAAs and compete for the individual title. She finished her junior year with a singles record of 22-8.

Cary Gibson '09 is the first Eph finalist in NCAA Singles Tourney

"That was a great match, but in the end it’s all about the team," said Gibson. "After our semifinal match the CBS TV crew that is here filming interviewed both Cary and Grace and after talking about the team competition they asked them what they thought about the singles tournament and both of them said they were focused on the team championship," said Swain.

"I'm tremendously proud of both Cary and Grace, because it is hard to come out of the team competition and immediately switch gears to a singles competition, but they really competed well," commented Swain.

"I can tell you that it is a lot of fun to make history and we are proud to have won the team title and see Cary and Grace play so well in singles – it has been a great year," stated Swain.

Quite a debut season for Swain who played on the first Williams team to win an NCAA title in 2001 and then came back to her alma mater to lead the Ephs to an NCAA title.

The future looks bright for the Ephs as they graduate just two players from this year's NCAA lineup in Alison Rottkamp and Annie Schneidman, Lucy Marchese will be back from injury for her sophomore season and there are some recruits headed to the Purple Valley who have solid tennis backgrounds.