The Emory University women’s tennis team swept the 2010 USTA/ITA South Region Fall Championships for the fourth-straight year, as junior Zahra Dawson won the singles title, and later teamed with senior Lorne McManigle to win the doubles draw.

Dawson, seeded second in the singles tournament, bested teammate and top-overall seed Gabrielle Clark 6-1, 6-0, to claim her first ITA Fall Singles Championship.  Earlier in the day, Dawson defeated Sewanee’s Kate Stanford 6-4, 6-4, to advance to the championship match.

Clark, a freshman, defeated ninth-seeded teammate Jordan Wylie, 7-5, 6-1 to advance to the championship match.  Clark dropped just nine games in her previous five matches, before losing to Dawson in the finals.

Dawson’s singles championship marked the ninth-straight year that an Emory player has come out on top of the bracket, and the 12^th time overall.

In the doubles championship match, Dawson teamed with McManigle to beat teammates Clark and Brenna Kelly, the sixth-seeded duo, 8-5, in the all-Emory final.

The Eagles’ winning pair, which entered the doubles tournament as the top seed, won the bracket as teammates for the second-straight year.  McManigle became the first player in Emory history to three-peat at the ITA Fall Championships in either the singles or the doubles bracket, after winning in 2008 as well with former Eagle Sabra Rogers.

By virtue of winning the USTA/ITA Fall Regional Championships, Dawson and McManigle will both earn all-America honors, each for the third-straight year.

After the tournament victory, Dawson and McManigle will now advance to the ITA Small College Nationals in Mobile, AL from October 14^th-16^th.