The men’s tennis team swept Union College on Wednesday, April 20, taking wins in all three doubles and all six singles matches. The Engineers saw their Liberty League ranking rise to 4-2, while the Dutchmen saw their conference record fall to 1-5.
Junior Stephen Baxter and sophomore Sundar Devakottai took the first doubles win of the day, defeating the Dutchmen’s John Kodera and John Shanley 8-1. Senior co-captain Graham Harris and freshman Suryansh Patel took the second seed win. The first seed doubles match finished last, with seniors Anthony Kim and Alain Grullon Gonzalez winning the match in tiebreakers.
In singles, the Engineers saw wins in all six seeds, but the game was decided upon the conclusion of the second singles match of the day, where Baxter defeated Dutchman Spencer Fontein.
The team has one final match in the regular season. On Sunday, May 1, at 1 pm, the team will take on Hobart College at home.
The women’s tennis team, however, saw a 6-3 loss against William Smith College on Sunday, April 24. As both teams are members of the Liberty League conference, the Engineers’ conference record fell to 2-3, while the Herons reached a tie of 3-3 in the conference.
The Engineers started the match off strong with senior co-captain Emily Laurilliard and sophomore Melanie Frank sweeping the first doubles match 8-1. Junior Pooja Ganesh and freshman Nisha Rajamohan followed suit shortly afterwards, defeating the Herons’ Alex Cattie and Sydney Ferry 8-3. Freshmen Erica Frommer and Mailani Neal, however, were defeated in the second seed doubles match against Alex Greenberg and Katarina Kostovic.
Singles matches saw better results for the Herons. Laurilliard won both sets 6-4 and 6-1, respectively, against Greenberg in the Engineers’ only singles win of the day. The Herons took all five other singles wins; Hannah More defeated Frommer, Michaelann Denton defeated Frank, Kostovic defeated Ganesh, Ferry defeated Neal, and Connie Froass defeated Rajamohan. Freshman Mackenzie Herbst took a close win 8-6 in an exhibition match against the Herons’ during the afternoon.
On the overall performance of the team throughout the semester, Head Coach Caitlin Crowley was “really proud of how hard [the team has] fought.” She explained that the team has “played a lot of challenging, competitive teams,” with six teams that are in the top 40 in the country.
With the spring season coming to a close, two games remain for The Engineers. First, on Friday, April 29 at 4 pm, the team will travel to Schenectady, N.Y. to take on the Union College Dutchmen. This Saturday at noon, be sure to check out the Engineers at home at the Sharp Courts for their Senior Day game against Vassar College.