FLUSHING, N.Y. (May 7, 2022) -- For the second straight year, the Franklin Pierce University women's tennis team is headed to the NCAA Championship National Finals. This time around, it came a little easier. A day after a marathon, 3.5-hour, first-round match, the sixth-seeded Ravens needed under two hours to dispatch second-seeded District of Columbia on Saturday, 4-0, in the second round of the NCAA East Regional, hosted by Queens College.

With the win, Franklin Pierce improves to 15-5, while UDC sees its season come to a close at 15-3. The Ravens will head to Altamonte Springs, Fla., where they will be joined by representatives from 15 other regional sites for National Finals, which are set for May 17-21. The East Region's other representative will be top-seeded Wilmington (Del.), which took care of fifth-seeded Le Moyne at home on Saturday, 4-0. The 16 teams advancing to Florida will be reseeded prior to the commencement of play.

The Ravens were on-point from the get-go on Saturday afternoon, and secured the doubles point with ease to start things off. It was a whitewashing at first doubles, where junior Liria Loria (La Paz, Bolivia) and graduate student Himani Mor (Sonipat, India) posted a 6-0 win over graduate student Simone Pam and senior Sofia Bellucco. At second doubles, match point caused some controversy, but stood just the same, as graduate students Estela Carra (Logrono, Spain) and Anais Geslin (Livry-Gargin, France) took care of sophomore Mariona Franco and freshman Laura Marie, 6-2.

With doubles done and dusted in about 30 minutes, Franklin Pierce would waste no time on the singles side of things either. The Ravens took the first set at first, second, third and fourth singles. From there, it was only a matter of time and math, as the points necessary to punch a ticket to the Sunshine State dwindled one-by-one.

Fourth singles wrapped first, as Geslin won the final 11 games of her match to see away senior Joanna Skrzypczynska, 6-1, 6-0. Third singles made it 3-0, as Loria went past Bellucco, 6-3, 6-1. Mor then provided the clinching point, as she watched the final shot from Franco fall long to secure a 6-2, 6-2 win.

More information about the Ravens' road to come will be available on Wednesday, after the NCAA announces the re-seeding of the 16 remaining teams.