The women’s tennis team swept their past three matches, shutting out Oswego and Cortland on the road before coming home to defeat Oneonta.
Despite a rough outing at the Vassar Scramble on Sept. 14 and 15, the Hawks were still 1-1 for the season, as the weekend’s games did not count towards New Paltz’s overall record due to their opponents not being in the SUNY Athletic Conference (SUNYAC). Regardless, the Hawks came back from that weekend strong and responded with vengeance against their fellow conference rivals with a dominant three-game win streak.
On Sept. 20, New Paltz went on the road to take on the Oswego Lakers. They wasted no time in setting the tone against their 1-6 opponent. The Hawks held Oswego to only two points through doubles play. Amazingly, the same could be said for points allowed in singles play as the Hawks easily took the 9-0 win. Fourth-year Eliza Johnson and third-year Lora Gould scored the only singles points for the Lakers.
The following day, the Hawks traveled to Cortland to play the Red Dragons, who were 1-3 when facing SUNYAC opponents. It was deja-vu for the Hawks during doubles, as they held off the opposition to just two points yet again and earned the sweep. During singles play, the first three sets were smooth sailing wins for the Hawks until New Paltz first-year Onalee Batcheller faced Cortland first-year Abby Madigan. Madigan gave Batcheller a tough fight, but Batcheller narrowly came out on top against Madigan 7-5 in the first round before defeating her again 6-1 in the following round. The Hawks quietly finished out singles with two more wins to give them their second 9-0 win in a row.
On Sept. 24, the Hawks returned home to face off against the original Red Dragons from Oneonta. The doubles sets started off quietly, with second-years Laura Koob and Trinity Chow earning an 8-0 match win. This was followed up with fourth-year Victoria Zezula and third-year Jenna Grandville engaging in a tight battle against Oneonta’s second-year Rebecca MacDonald and first-year Maxie Karen. The Hawks took the set, 8-6. Koob and Zezula had competitive matches against second-year Olivia Fraser and second-year Madeline Carswell, respectively. Koob defeated Fraser 6-2 and 6-3, followed up with Zezula beating Carswell 6-4 and 6-1.
Karen gave Oneonta their only win of the day in singles, defeating Grandville 6-4 and 7-6 before Grandville scored her only victory of the set, 7-3. Batcheller and second-year Alex Chimenti won each of their sets to close out singles and wrapped up New Paltz’s dominant 8-1 victory. The win handed the Red Dragons their first SUNYAC loss of the season, and put the Hawks tied with the Geneseo Knights for the top seed in SUNYAC. A win against the Knights on Friday could give them that coveted first seed.
The Hawks look to continue their positive momentum when they finish out their regular season with three consecutive games in Binghamton this weekend before the SUNYAC Semifinals on Oct. 12. They face Geneseo on Friday, Oct. 4 at 9 a.m., Fredonia on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 10 a.m. and Brockport on Saturday, Oct. 6, with a start time yet to be determined.
