Weymouth, Mass. - She was the Northeast-10 Player of the Year, and Rebecca Fakas proved it on Sunday night.

The senior rallied from a set down to defeat Stonehill's Victoria Barbetta, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 at No.1 singles to clinch the Panthers' third straight NE10 title, 5-4. Fakas, named the most Outstanding Player of the NE10 Championship for the second year in a row due to her heroics, came from a set and a break down to clinch the top flight victory, and with it the NE10 trophy and another automatic berth in the NCAA Tounament this spring.

Adelphi (14-1) avenged a 6-3 defeat to Stonehill (14-1) in the regular season, but the Panthers have bested the Skyhawks to win their three conference crowns - including by 5-4 scores in each of the past two years.

The Panthers led 2-1 after doubles, winning at No.1 and No.3 to go into singles play in the lead. Stonehill took the first point of the match as Barbetta and Kate Cunningham defeated Samantha Perri and Elizabeth Kallenberg, 8-4, at No.2, but Adelphi quickly responded as Fakas and Karen Serina won 8-3 at top flight.

The deciding match came down to No.3, in which Vanja Savic and Nicole Kielan flipped their result against Stonehill from the regular season meeting, as the senior and freshman teamed for an 8-4 win over Colleen O'Donnell and Isabelle Porter.

The Skyhawks looked to make a push in singles, winning the first set at four of the six spots, but Perri and Kallenberg held firm for Adelphi with straight set victories which put the Brown and Gold on the precipice of the win. Perri cruised in her No.4 singles match over Nicole Downey, 6-1, 6-1 to give Adelphi a 3-1 lead, and Cunningham took a 6-3, 6-3 decision over Serina seconds later to make it 3-2.

A 7-5, 6-1 victory for Kallenberg over Stonehill's Alexandra Vo - her first career defeat to an NE10 conference opponent - put Adelphi one point away from the win, but the Skyhawks ensured that the match would be decided at the top spot after victories at No.3 and No.6. In a battle of two of the league's best freshmen, Porter edged Kielan at No.3, 6-4, 7-5, winning the last four games of the match; while O'Donnell got a singles scalp over Savic, 7-5, 6-3.

While the action was going on around her, Fakas was putting together a mammoth comeback against an in-form Barbetta over the course of three sets. From 6-3, 2-0 down, Fakas worked her way back into the match, eventually sending No.1 to a decider by breaking in the 10th game of the set. The senior set the tone early in the deciding set, breaking in Barbetta's first service game and digging out of a 15-40 hole to lead 3-0 at the change of ends.

Fakas built a 5-1 lead in the decider and had a match point on serve at that juncture, but withstood a comeback effort from Barbetta to clinch the match and championship victory. For their efforts, Barbetta, Cunningham, Perri, Kallenberg and Fakas made up the All-Tournament Team, joined by semifinalists Rithika Vajjiravelu of Le Moyne and Sofia Morais of Southern New Hampshire.

"I want to congratulate Stonehill for making it this far, putting up such a great fight and always pushing us to be better," Fakas said. "These are the matches you want to be a part of, and the feeling of clinching for my team is something I will cherish forever. I've been honored to be a part of a team like this for the past four years."

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About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past eight seasons, has collected 25 regular season conference titles, 25 tournament championships, 33 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup four times (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), while winning six NCAA Division II National Championships.

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