During the fall of 2019, the New Paltz women’s tennis team had a remarkable season: seven wins and zero losses in the conference matchups. On Oct. 13, 2019 the team won the SUNYAC Championships at Oneonta. It was such an amazing season that the cancellation of the Spring 2020 season due to COVID-19 came as a huge disappointment to everyone.
Have no fear, though. The ladies are back in business and they’re looking better than ever. On Wednesday, April 14, New Paltz hosted Cortland at home courts. In a great start to the season, the Hawks slayed the Dragons 9-0.
The game started with doubles. First up for New Paltz was third-year Trinity Chow and first-year Tatiana Barnett facing Cortland’s first-year Logan Streety and second-year Isabella Bonapace. This matchup would be no problem for Chow (who was named the Peter J. Cahill SUNYAC Most Valuable Player for two seasons in a row). New Paltz took the set 8-1.
“I was very nervous during my doubles match,” Barnett said. “But [Chow] made me more relaxed and I started to have fun. After our win, I had more confidence in myself for singles and just played my own game.”
The next matchup was a little more challenging. Second-year Onalee Batcheller and third-year Alexandra went head to head with Cortland’s second-years Abby Madigan and Vyda Van Denburg. The Dragons managed to score five points, but the Hawks were the first to eight, handing New Paltz another point for winning the set.
Mirroring to the first, the third doubles matchup was won by New Paltz 8-1. This time, New Paltz’s fourth-year Jenna Grandville and first-year Loretta Donovan faced Cortland’s third-year Katie Barber and fourth-year Shannon McGuire.
It was time for singles; and Chow took on first-year Streety. Once again proving her dominance, Chow shut out Streety twice in a row earning another point for New Paltz. Next up was Madigan versus New Paltz’s third-year Laura Koob. The latter took set one 6-1, while set two was more of a battle: Madigan only lost by one point. That matchup would be the closest Cortland got to New Paltz the entire game.
With four matches left, New Paltz was ahead 5-0. Grandville took the third singles 6-2 each time against Van Denburg, Batcheller took a 6-0 and 6-1 win against Bonapace and first-year Barnett had a truly impressive match against Barber: shutting her out 6-0, twice in a row. Is this the first sign of a Baby Hawk who will go on to do many more amazing performances for the team?
Barnett said that first she was anxious about playing singles, but her coach, Rob Bruley, was very reassuring and the team also made her feel comfortable and confident about her position.
“I was happy with the result, but of course I always think that I could have played better,” Barnett said. “It felt great to start my college tennis career with a win. The team had such great energy during the match and this win has brought us together.”
The game ended with Donovan earning a 6-0 and 6-1 victory over McGuire and a 9-0 win over Cortland, proving the time away did nothing to diminish the strength of the team.
The win extended New Paltz’s highly impressive scoring streak of 18 games against Cortland. The last time they fell to them was Sept. of 2005.
The ladies are traveling to Plattsburgh on Thursday, April 22 for what should be another exciting game. This time, the ladies are looking to extend their winning streak to 19 as they have never fallen to Plattsburgh in program history.
