Women's Tennis | 9/19/2016 9:36:00 PM
ONEONTA, NY – The Hartwick women's tennis team entered today's afternoon matchup against Bard College looking to protect their undefeated clip. In their most competitive match of the season, the Hawks would come out on top, 7-2. Hartwick is now 5-0 while Bard drops to 3-2.
Last season against the Raptors, the Hawks claimed a final score of 6-3. Hartwick held a 2-1 advantage going into singles play in part to
Kelly Napolitano (Mt. Sinai, NY/Mt. Sinai) who did not drop a game with her doubles partner, and with the duo of
Caitlin O'Brien (Glenville, NY/Burnt Hills Ballston Lake) and
Jaclyn LaSita (Wading River, NY/Shoreham-Wading River) who claimed the other win.
This time around, the Hawks managed to round out doubles perfectly heading into solo play.
Heidi Rice (Canandaigua, NY/Marcus Whitman) finished first at the top flight not dropping a single game. The duos of Napolitano/
Kelli Ryan (Plattsburgh, NY/Seton Catholic) and
Caitlin O'Brien (Glenville, NY/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake)/
Caitlin Hawley (Camillus, NY/West Genesee) only sacrificed three games at each of their showings to replicate the same 8-3 score.
Rice, O'Brien and Napolitano were able to retain their dominance shown a season prior.
Rice got rid of her opponent in straight sets with her best clip coming at the second go round. In the first solo match to finish, Rice won 6-3, 6-0.
At no. 5, O'Brien met with Isabelle Scarborough who she outdid in 2015, 6-2, 6-0. For this match, the first set mimicked the same score from last season while the second score finished 6-2, still in O'Brien's favor.
Napolitano faced a different representative from Bard. Again at the third flight, she beat out Bella Martinez, 6-4, 6-1.
At the fourth flight, Ryan managed to save six match points after trailing 5-1. Unfortunately, a tiebreaker score of 16-14 would be go in Bard's favor.
Next, Hartwick looks to compete in back-to-back conference matches. First, Utica will test the Hawks on their courts this Friday at 4 p.m. On Saturday, Hartwick will return home to host St. John Fisher at 1 p.m.
