App State senior Savannah Dada-Mascoll finished up her momentous fall season with the program’s first-ever singles appearance and a top-8 finish at the NCAA Championships in Orlando, Florida. Dada-Mascoll won 3 straight matches to reach the quarterfinals before falling in a close 3-set match. 

Dada-Mascoll made the quarterfinals with 3 wins in three days. The appearance led her to become the first App State tennis player to earn an All-American title. 

Dada-Mascoll came into the tournament as the No. 4 overall seed after two great showings at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Invitational and the ITA Regionals.

The first match for Dada-Mascoll came on Tuesday, the opening day of the tournament, against Naomi Xu from the University of California-Berkeley. She won in 2-straight sets with a scoreline of 6-3 in each. 

The second round of the tournament matched Dada-Mascoll up against Ria Bhakta from  Clemson University. Dada-Mascoll made quick work of the lone Tiger in the tournament, winning another straight set match 6-3 and 6-0. The win catapulted the senior from Yorkshire, England into the top-16.

Dada-Mascoll said that the All-American honor is not only exciting for her but for the whole App State tennis program.

“I want to set a standard of this is the expectation. App State tennis players are able to compete at the highest level and should be considered great tennis players,” Dada-Mascoll said in a post-match interview. “One of my goals is just leaving the program better than how I came in.”

The top-16 matchup saw Dada-Mascoll face off against her first-ranked opponent of the tournament in No. 47 Emma Charney from the University of Southern California. The match went all three sets after both women traded the first two with 6-4 scorelines. 

With her back against the wall, down 0-3 in the final set, the Mountaineer representative won 6-straight games after a service ace gave her all the momentum she needed to reach the top-8. A resounding yell from Dada-Mascoll could be heard on every court as she won the match. 

In the quarterfinals of the event, she matched up against the University of Mississippi’s No. 67 Emily Welker. Another wire-to-wire matchup went all three sets with Dada-Mascoll dominating the first set 6-4, before losing the second one 3-6. 

The final set saw her take a 5-3 lead, only needing one more game win to advance to the top four, but Dada-Mascoll began making crucial errors, which Welker capitalized on, and Dada-Mascoll eventually lost the set 5-7.

Arguably the greatest season in App State women’s tennis history, Dada-Mascoll started the season ranked at No. 106 according to ITA. She finished with a 13-2 record, including a notable win over No. 1 DJ Bennet from Auburn University. The two losses came against Nos.. 43 and 67.

Dada-Mascoll and App State will have more chances at glory as the spring season begins in mid-January. The start date and schedule have not yet been announced.