SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College women's tennis team set a new program standard for wins in a season and clinched a spot in the Liberty League Tournament for the third straight season with a 7-2 victory over Rochester Institute of Technology on Senior Day on Saturday afternoon at the Union Tennis Courts.
Union (10-7, 4-4 Liberty League) clinched the fifth seed in the upcoming Liberty League Tournament with the victory and will face off with fourth-seeded St. Lawrence University in the first round on Friday at Cornell University's Reis Tennis Center.
Four players had two wins apiece for Union in the victory, with first-year
Luisa Arizpe-Sierra and sophomores
Kennedy Alexis,
Claire Langille and
Skylar Semon combining for six of the team's seven points. Fellow sophomore
Kennedy Alexis also earned a singles win for the Garnet Chargers as well.
After RIT (7-10, 2-6 Liberty League) started the day with a win at first doubles, Union earned points at the bottom two flights to take the lead. Alexis and Arizpe-Sierra evened the match with an 8-3 win at second doubles over Jackie Drozd and Abby Murray, closing with six straight wins to complete the victory. Langille and Semon pushed Union into the lead with an 8-5 third-doubles win over Gabby Donahue and Anika Galkiewicz, winning four of the final five games to break a 4-4 tie.
The home team closed out the match with wins in five of the six singles contests. Arizpe-Sierra made quick work of Maya Clinard at second singles in a 6-1, 6-1 victory, as did Semon in a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Donahue at the third flight. Langille provided the clinching fifth point by winning a pair of 6-4 sets over Murray at the fourth flight, coming back from 3-1 down in both frames to earn the win. Alexis followed by earning back-to-back 6-2 frames to beat Galkiewicz at sixth singles.
Alphabet worked hard to finish off the day with a win for Union, outlasting Drozd in fifth-singles action, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6). She was down 5-3 in the first set before earning two breaks to close with four straight wins, and then jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second set before shaking off two breaks to hold serve down 6-5 and ekeing out the tiebreaker.
Check UnionAthletics.com next week for more information and a full preview of the Liberty League Tournament.