COMPLETE RESULTS

LOS ANGELES -- Senior Sara Celma captured the 2013 USTA/ITA Fall Regional Championship in singles play and will advance to play in the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships on Oct. 10-13 in Fort Meyers, Fla.  The second-seeded Celma defeated Azusa Pacific's Emily Harris in straight sets in the semifinals before pulling out an emotional, hard-fought victory in a third-set tiebreaker over top-seeded Petra Jurova from Fresno Pacific in Saturday's championship match.

"Sara won (the title) in a pretty incredible way," said SSU head women's tennis coach Joaquin Lopez.  "She was completely out of gas, but she found a way to pull out the match through fierceness and intelligence."

Just hours after Celma defeated Harris (6-3, 6-2) in the semis, she went to battle with Jurova, who ended the 2013 spring season as the 26th-ranked singles player in Division II.  Celma, who was No. 28 on that same list, took the first set 6-3 before suffering a 7-5 loss in set number two to knot the match at one set apiece.  The regional title would then be decided in a 10-point tiebreaker in which Celma pulled out the thrilling 10-8 win to claim the championship.

Celma broke SSU's single-season wins record as a junior last season, sporting a 20-3 record and her No. 28 national ranking was the highest since Megan Lowrey finished the 1990 season as the No. 9 singles player in Division II.

Also of note, Sheena Johnson, who lost in the Round of 64 on Thursday, captured the consolation bracket title, defeating Dixie State's Laura Hartle (8-3), Jessica Laurie from Cal State Stanislaus (9-8), Kim Kotterheinrich from Azusa Pacific (8-4) and Jana Diamond from Cal State Stanislaus (8-5) for the championship.

While Celma heads to Florida for the Small College Championships on Oct. 10-13, the rest of the Sonoma State team will compete at the Dominican Invite in San Rafael on Oct. 12-13.

About the USTA/ITA Fall Championship Season

The Small College (NCAA Divisions II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community College) singles and doubles champions from the USTA/ITA Regional Championships will advance to the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships, held October 10-13 at the Three Oaks Tennis Center in Fort Myers, Florida. The USTA/ITA National Small College Championships are comprised of the eight regional champions (and/or at-large selections) from NCAA Divisions II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community Colleges.

The USTA/ITA National Small College Championship is the only national championship event for singles and doubles at the NCAA Division II and NAIA levels. It is also the only tournament that combines all levels of Junior/Community College (NJCAA Divisions I and III and the California division). The singles and doubles champions at each divisional level will then compete to become the overall "Super Bowl" champions. The "Super Bowl" champions earn wild cards into the USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships with the opportunity to win the culminating event held at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. on Nov. 7-10.

As the only tournament on the ITA calendar to showcase elite players from every level of college tennis, the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, serves as the culmination of the fall season.  Gaining automatic entry into the tournament are champions from the USTA/ITA Division I Regional Championships held across the country in October, winners of the USTA/ITA National Small College "Super Bowl", and the consolation champions, doubles finalists, men's singles quarterfinalists and women's singles semifinalists from the ITA Men's and Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships.