The SUNY New Paltz women’s tennis team has started the second leg of their season going 0-3.
“Despite the losses, no one went down without a fight,” said fourth-year Brittany Grandville. “Most of the singles matches, in particular, took an extensive amount of time to finish and a good amount went to tiebreaker sets. These teams are meant to be challenging since they are all highly ranked. I feel as though we matched the competition well in certain aspects, though the scores do not reflect such.”
The women traveled down to Florida for their “Spring Break Trip” and were defeated by Nichols College, William Smith College and Grinnell College. Their match against Oberlin College was cancelled due to inclement weather.
In October, the tennis team competed in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament, defeating Oswego State and SUNY Cortland before being eliminated by SUNY Geneseo 5-3.
The latter half of the season has the team facing off against non-conference opponents throughout April, before they hosted the New Paltz Tournament on April 21.
In the team’s first match in Florida against Nichols on Sunday, March 18, the women thrived in singles play, but like the first leg of the season, struggled in doubles.
The team fell behind 3-0 after dropping three doubles matches, but co-captain Carol Tyson won 6-0, 6-0 at second singles to put the Hawks back on track.
First-year Jenna Grandville followed up with 6-2 and 6-3 win in third singles.
The Hawks lost in fourth and fifth singles, and while second-year Victoria Zezula won at sixth singles, it wasn’t enough to beat Nichols.
The next day against William Smith, the Hawks dropped all three doubles matches again (8-3, 8-2, 8-1), but again did well in singles play.
First-year Courtney Koran notched the first win in a super tie-breaker (1-6, 6-4, 10-8) at fifth singles. Fourth-year Emi Lewis dropped her super tie-breaker match at sixth singles, after which the rest of the match was cancelled by rain, preventing the teams from completing the last two sets.
The next day, New Paltz’s matchup with Oberlin was cancelled, followed by an off-day on Wednesday, March 21.
Before departing Florida, New Paltz squared off against Grinnell, but lost 7-2.
Their singles play again shone, but doubles were again their downfall.
Tyson notched the first points for New Paltz at second singles (6-3, 6-2). At sixth singles, Zezula also pulled out a big win in a super tiebreaker (6-3, 5-7, 10-5). Unfortunately, Koran was unable to do the same as she dropped the third set in the super tiebreaker.
Despite not winning any doubles matches during the trip, there was improvement against Grinnell, especially at third doubles from the tandem of Jenna Grandville and third-year Lindsay Haley who dropped a well-contested 8-6 match.
“We were a little rusty on the court, as expected, since these were the first matches of the spring season and in a completely new climate altogether,” Brittany said. “I am hoping to see us develop more consistency out on court with our upcoming practices and matches within the next month.”
The Hawks next match will come away at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey on Wednesday, April 4.