The women’s tennis team snapped their two-game losing streak with a 7-2 win against Stevens Institute of Technology on Wednesday, April 5.
Despite the team’s 3-3 record in the spring, Hawks head coach Rob Bruley noted the team’s quality performance despite the inability to practice outdoors.
“It’s tough to get everything going because we’re not outside,” he said. “We’ve had a few practices indoors at Dutchess Racket Club. We don’t have indoor courts and we’re playing teams who have them, so we’re kind of playing catch up a little bit.”
In the matchup against Stevens, New Paltz won six of seven singles matches and two of the three doubles games.
New Paltz came close to sweeping singles competition, as first-year Jessica Reich lost 7-6 in a decisive third set.
Third-year co-captain Carol Tyson and third-year Emi Lewis dropped the first doubles flight against Stevens 4-8, but the duo of third-year Brittany Grandville and fourth-year Olivia Ammirati won their matchup 8-3. Second-year Lindsay Haley and first-year Victoria Zezula finished off the match with an 8-2 doubles win.
“The final score was not a true reflection of the game,” Bruley said. “It was a tough matchup. We stayed strong and played very well. This gives us good confidence going into Saturday’s matchup against Union.”
Prior to this matchup New Paltz recently suffered a 6-3 loss to Ithaca College on Friday, March 31. The match featured some strong performances from Tyson, Lewis, Haley and Zezula.
Tyson won her singles match in a decisive third set that she won 5-0 and Lewis swept her opponent in two sets (6-2, 6-1) for the Hawks’ only singles wins for the matchup.
However, the Hawks were unable to get the important wins in doubles, winning only one of the three matches for the day in that category.
“Doubles has always been a little bit weak but I’ve seen a lot of improvement,” Bruley said. “They’ve been working with the strength and conditioning coach and I can’t ask for much more out of the team.
“We lost a close match, but I was really proud of how we played. The doubles we went 1-2. We may mix it up a bit for the next few games. We might change a few partners and see if we can shake it up.”
The Hawks will take on Union College on Saturday, April 8 at 10 a.m. Union has gone 5-2 since the spring season began.
“The Liberty League is among the top five strongest conferences in the country,” Bruley said. “Union is going to be tough, but we do rise to the occasion. It’ll also be Accepted Students Day, so hopefully we can get a few people to watch the game and see what our program is about.”