Michigan's Minor, Virginia's Kwiatkowski win at NCAA tennis championships
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) Brienne Minor gave Michigan its first NCAA women's tennis title, while Virginia's Thai-Son Kwiatkowski beat a familiar foe to capture the men's championship.
Minor defeated Florida's Belinda Woolcock 6-3, 6-3 on Monday to become only the third player from the Wolverines to capture a singles title. The other two were men's champions: Barry MacKay in 1957 and Mike Leach in 1982.
''I just feel so honored to represent such a great school,'' Minor said. ''I love Michigan and I'm so glad I committed here. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.''
Kwiatkowski took Virginia to its second men's singles title in three years, beating William Blumberg from North Carolina 6-4, 7-6 (5) in an all-Atlantic Coast Conference final. Ryan Shane of the Cavaliers won in 2015.
Wrapping up the 12-day championships at the University of Georgia, Andrew Harris and Spencer Papa of Oklahoma and Francesca Di Lorenzo and Miho Kowase of Ohio State claimed doubles titles.
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Kwiatkowski, a senior, avenged a 6-3, 6-2 loss to Blumberg in last week's team competition. Despite the setback, the Cavaliers won their third straight men's championship.
''Thank goodness the rest of the guys picked me up because Will really took it to me when we went indoors last week,'' Kwiatkowski said. ''Today I felt that the coaches gave me a really good game plan, one that was different than what we had before. I just went out and tried to fight as hard as I could ... and it's pretty amazing what happened out there.''
Blumberg missed out on a chance to win North Carolina's first men's singles title.
''Thai is obviously an awesome player,'' he said. ''No excuses today. He played better than me.''
Woolcock was part of a Florida squad that captured the women's team title last week.
''I am so proud of myself considering I won all of my singles matches in the team event and to get this far in singles,'' she said. ''I honestly didn't really expect that because I put so much focus and energy into the team event.''
In doubles, the host school was denied a title when Harris and Papa defeated Georgia's Robert Loeb and Jan Zielinski 4-6, 6-2, 10-6 in the men's final.
Di Lorenzo and Kowase claimed the championship in women's doubles with a 6-7 (6), 6-4, 10-7 victory over Maddie Pothoff and Erin Routliffe of Alabama.
