After a five-month hiatus following their State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championship in the fall, the Hawks women’s tennis team picked up where they left off starting their spring 2019 season with a 4-0 record. The Lady Hawks picked up victories over William Smith College, Springfield College, Goucher College and George Fox University over the span of March 18-21 in Florida.
The Hawks first match was against an opponent who beat them handily last season by a score 7-2, the William Smith Herons.
In a super competitive match, the Hawks earned victories in first and second doubles. First-years Trinity Chow and Laura Koob ran away with an 8-2 victory in first doubles while third-year Victoria Zezula and fourth-year Lindsay Haley escaped with an 8-6 victory in second doubles.
Chow and second-years Jenna Grandville and Courtney Koran earned victories in first, fourth and fifth doubles respectively. The five victories on the day were enough to push the Hawks past the Herons, 5-4.
The following day the Hawks took on Springfield University in another nail-bitter. The Hawks would start the match that Tuesday, but it would be finished the following day due to inclement weather.
Springfield dominated doubles as they stomped New Paltz 8-2 and 8-4 in second and third doubles, respectively. The only victory came at the hands of freshman duo Chow and Koob, coming out victorious 8-4 in first doubles.
The Hawks made up for it in singles, however, winning four of the six matches. Chow once again took first singles 6-2 and 6-4 while Koob, Koran and third-year Maddy Bourne added victories in second (7-6, 6-2), fifth (6-1, 6-1) and sixth (6-1, 6-1) singles respectively. Their four singles victories were enough to edge out Springfield, 5-4.
“The weather obstacle was quite hard on us because tennis is usually played in dry weather and college tennis is usually hard [surface] courts for us, so we were not able to finish the match that night,” Chow said. “We were able to tie up the score to 4-4 with Laura Koob ahead a set and one game. The match was later finished the next day after our Goucher match where Laura went on to finish the second set, 6-2. The Springfield match came down to her and she pulled it off even with the delayed match.”
After a pair of close matches to start the trip, the Hawks closed it out with two dominant performances against Goucher College and George Fox University.
The Hawks cruised past Goucher College 8-1, winning in every set but second singles. Many of these sets weren’t even close as New Paltz rolled past the Gophers. In the only close set of the match, Chow once again came out victorious (7-6, 6-4).
The Hawks concluded their Florida trip with another dominant performance, defeating George Fox University 7-2.
New Paltz once again secured two of the three doubles victories. Chow and Koob won handily, (6-1, 6-3) while Zezula and Haley doubled up the Bruins, 8-4.
The Hawks dominated singles as well, winning five of the six sets. Chow once again won handily 8-1 while Grandville narrowly escaped with a
“I think the strength of our freshmen class has really shown through during our undefeated spring break trip,” said Hawks head coach Rob Bruley. “Two of the four matches came down to their individual dual singles matches which both freshmen at No. 1 & No. 2. But our strength in depth also played a major factor being undefeated at positions No. 5 & No. 6 bringing home very crucial points at the bottom of our lineup.”
Up next for the Hawks is a match at Ithaca University Friday, March 30.
“The team’s ability to stay focused is really what helped us,” Haley said. “We didn’t get complacent despite coming off an undefeated fall season, and we knew we had to come out just as strong as we did in the beginning of the year in order to continue our winning streak.”