The fall portion of the women’s tennis team’s season came to an end over the weekend as they lost to SUNY Geneseo in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament Finals for the seventh-straight season.
On Monday, Oct. 16, the Knights clinched their 11th conference title with a 5-3 victory over the Hawks.
Geneseo took the first two doubles matches, but the duo of third-year Lindsay Haley and first-year Jenna Grandville pulled off a 9-7 victory at flight three doubles to make it a 2-1 match going into singles play.
“The fact that Lindsay and I were able to win our doubles match against Geneseo gave our team a fighting chance as we entered singles,” J. Grandville said. “In previous years, we went into singles with no doubles points at all.”
New Paltz quickly evened that score at 2-2 as Haley won her flight six singles match 6-2, 6-1.
The Knights retook the lead after first-year Courtney Koran lost her first singles match all season at flight five. But the Hawks quickly tied the score again after fourth-year Emi Lewis won a flight four 6-2, 7-6.
A win at flight three put Geneseo one win away from the SUNYAC Championship. Fourth-year co-captains Brittany Grandville and Carol Tyson were put on the spot to save New Paltz’s season.
B. Grandville lost her first set 7-5, but won her second set 6-4. However, Tyson dropped her first two sets before B. Grandville’s third and the Knights were victorious.
“My team’s performance against Geneseo was incredible,” J. Grandville said. “We put it all out there and fought with every ounce of our strength. Every point was played to our best and we never gave up. We definitely left the match feeling heavy hearted.”
J. Grandville and Haley were named to the All-Tournament team for their performance at third doubles, while Haley also earned All-Tournament honors for her victory in sixth singles.
Prior to their championship match with Geneseo, the Hawks swept their quarterfinals match against SUNY Oswego and their semifinals match against SUNY Cortland by identical scores of 5-0.
New Paltz concludes its fall season with an overall record of 6-3. The team’s first matchup of the spring season will not be until March 30, when they host Ithaca College.
J. Grandville explained that the team will still be staying in shape during the long gap in between seasons.
“As far as how we will be spending our off season, we will still be doing physical conditioning as a team once a week with Gary [Gall] and keeping up with workouts on our personal time at the gym,” she said. “In the coming months we will start practicing indoors once a week.”