ITHACA, N.Y. – The fourth-seeded Union College women's tennis team had its 2022-23 season come to a heartbreaking close in the first round of the Liberty League Tournament on Friday morning, falling to fifth-seeded St. Lawrence University by a 5-4 score at Cornell University's Reis Tennis Center.
 
With the win, St. Lawrence (10-5) advances to the Liberty League Tournament semifinals, where the Saints will face off with top-seeded and ITA #38 Vassar College tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. in Ithaca.
 
Junior Gracie Nicol was a double winner on the day for Union, while the team also earned two more singles victories but came up just a few points short of a match win.
 
Nicol and senior Marilena Karadimou got Union off to a hot start in doubles play, winning the first seven games of their 8-1 first-doubles victory over Caitlyn Avery and Emily Harris in only 31 minutes. But the momentum cooled off as the Saints took the second and third flights to take a 2-1 lead into singles play. First-years Kennedy Alexis and Chara Meidani served with a 7-6 lead in their second-doubles match against Angelica Aksdal-Jansen and Elena Styliades, but could not finish off the win and and fell 7-2 in the subsequent tiebreaker.
 
After SLU earned a win at third singles to take a 3-1 lead, first-year Skylar Semon earned Union's first singles win of the day at the fifth flight, getting Union back within a point with a pair of 6-3 sets to defeat Meredith Macey.
 
Nicol battled back from a rough opening frame to force a third set in her second-singles match against Avery and eventually evened the match at three. After dropping a 6-0 first set, she took four of the final five games of the second set to extend the match with a 6-4 win and then rolled to a 6-2 win in the third set to pull out the comeback victory.
 
A win by St. Lawrence at sixth singles put the Saints one win away from a victory, but sophomore Gabby Gatto followed a similar script to Nicol in her fourth-singles match to again even the score.  The sophomore flipped a 6-2 loss in the first set into a 6-2 win in the second to set up a third set that she also won by a 6-2 score over Harris.
 
The roles were reversed at the top flight, where Karadimou took the first set from Catherine Gamble, 6-3, before losing four of the final five games in a 6-4 second-set loss, setting up a third set to decide the match. Karadimou was down 3-5 in the third set but saved a match point at deuce before eventually breaking to remain in the match, but Gamble broke right back in the final game to secure the win for the Saints.
 
Union (9-7) has one of the best seasons in program history come to an end with the defeat. The team matched a program-record for wins in a season, posted its highest-ever finish in the Liberty League standings and earned an NCAA regional ranking.