ITHACA, N.Y. – The fifth-seeded Union College women's tennis team earned the program's first postseason victory since 2003 with a hard-fought 5-4 victory over fourth-seeded St. Lawrence University in the first round of the Liberty League Tournament on Friday afternoon at Cornell University's Reis Tennis Courts.
With the win, Union (11-7) increases its program-record wins total and advances to the Liberty League Tournament semifinals to take on top-seeded and #32 Vassar College tomorrow at 2:15 p.m.
Sophomore
Claire Langille and first-year
Luisa Arizpe-Sierra both had two wins apiece to lead Union to the victory, while senior
Gracie Nicol, sophomore
Kennedy Alexis and sophomore
Skylar Semon all played a role in one victory each to lead the Garnet Chargers to the history-making win.
Union got off to an excellent start in doubles play, with Arizpe-Sierra and Alexis setting the tone with an 8-1 win over Ariane Karera and Yvette Karera. After both tandems held serve to start the match, Alexis and Arizpe-Sierra rattled off seven straight games and earned three breaks to earn the victory.
The Garnet Chargers went into singles play with a lead thanks to third doubles, where Langille and Semon pulled out an 8-4 win over Elena Styliades and Abigail Sicuranza. The Union tandem earned four breaks to pull out the win, jumping out to a 4-2 lead and then closing with four wins in the last five games for a key victory.
St. Lawrence (12-8) earned two quick wins at third and fourth singles to take back the lead, but Arizpe-Sierra evened the match with a 7-5, 6-3 win at second singles over Molly Jespersen. Down 3-4 in the opening set, the first-year closed with four wins in the final five games to gain the advantage, and then stormed back from down 3-1 in the second set to seal the match by winning five straight games.
Needing to win two of the final three singles matches, Union came through at the first and fifth flights to clinch the win. At the fifth slight, Langille came back from a set down to defeat Maya Stepic, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Down 3-2 in the second set, she closed with four wins in five games to force a third set, where the carried the momentum out to a 3-0 lead before finishing out the frame. At almost the exact same time, Nicol took the first set from ITA #47 Angelica Aksdal-Jansen but dropped the second frame. Despite that, Nicol stormed out to a 5-1 lead in the final set and worked hard to close out the match and the victory in a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 first-singles victory.
