The women’s tennis team dominated the squad from arch-rival Clarkson at their first home meet on Friday, winning by a margin of five points to Clarkson’s two. The Red Hawks used aggressive play and quickness to keep the Golden Knights off balance all day.
In the opening matches Dorte Khudsen and Annie Erdekian easily defeated Maura Tutty and Nicole Mikkelson 8-1 in first doubles, and Raimi Ishikawa and Anne Marino beat Adrianne Shepler and Meghan Jones in third doubles 8-2.
The second doubles team of Victoria Gardner and Kristen Powers suffered an initial setback, getting broken early by the pair of Melissa Monson and Anne Sawyer, but came from behind to win the match 8-6.
The momentum from the sweep of the doubles matches continued into the singles matches. The Red Hawks easily captured the top four matches in singles play, losing only nine games total in the process. Knudsen defeated Tutty 6-1, 6-1; Ishikawa routed Adrianne Schepler 6-1, 6-0; Annie Erdekian beat Melissa Monson 6-2, 6-2; and Kristen Powers defeated Nicole Mikkelson 6-1, 6-1.
The only match losses of the day for the Red Hawks came in fifth singles where Meghan Jones was defeated by Gardner 6-4, 6-1 and in sixth singles where Saila Ghanta lost to Kathryn Cyr 7-5, 6-2.
In Monday’s home meet the Red Hawks suffered a reversal of fortune, losing six points to two to New Paltz, this year’s winner of the RPI Invitational.
In the opening doubles matches, they narrowly pulled out only one victory—the third doubles pairing of Ishikawa and Marinaro over Diane Lemanski and Jessica Smith 9-7. The team of Gardner and Powers lost to Megan Crevioserat and Sophie Giret 8-2 in second doubles and Khudsen and Erdekian were defeated by the pairing of Kerry Farrell and Becky Sparacin 9-8.
Danielle Kocher was the only Red Hawk singles player to win a match, defeating Gina Ciccarella 6-0, 6-2 in sixth singles. Knudsen lost to Giret 6-3, 6-3 in first singles, Powers was defeated by Farell 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 in second singles, Erdekian was beaten by Sparacin 6-4, 6-0 in third singles, Ishikawa lost to Jen Neumann 7-5, 6-2 in fourth singles, and Gardner lost to Amie Larson 6-0, 6-1 in fifth singles.
The Red Hawks are 1-1 in match play and have an overall record of 3-3. Their next match against Russell Sage will be played at the Sharp Courts on Friday at 4 pm.
