SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College women's tennis team kicked off the spring portion of its 2024-25 schedule with a hard-fought 5-2 victory over The College of New Jersey on Saturday afternoon at Sportime Schenectady.
 
Junior Sydney Alphabet and first-year Calista Finkelstein led Union (2-0) with a pair of victories on the day, while four other Garnet Chargers earned one win apiece to start the spring on the right note.
 
Union started the afternoon by taking two-of-three doubles matches to earn the first point of the day. Juniors Claire Langille and Skylar Semon gave the home team an early advantage in doubles play with a 6-2 second-doubles win over Aira Abalos and Gabrielle Brideau, and the pair of Alphabet and Finkelstein clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 win at the third flight over Anusha Perinkolam and Elizabeth Ring.
 
Sophomore Luisa Arizpe-Sierra quickly gave Union a 2-0 lead with a win at sixth singles, dispatching Ring with a pair of 6-1 sets. TCNJ came back with wins at first and second singles to even the score, but Union won the final three flights to pull away with the win.
 
Finkelstein started the momentum with a huge comeback win at fifth singles, rebounding from a 6-1 first set to take down Gabriella Robinson, 6-3 in the second set and 11-9 in the supertiebreaker. She broke Robinson in her last three service games to even the match at a set apiece, then came back from 7-5 down in the breaker to pull out the victory.
 
First-year Samantha Jacobs earned the clinching fourth point at the third flight, outlasting Shruti Mannan by a 6-2, 4-6, (12-10) score. The rookie looked to be in command up 7-1 in the supertiebreaker, but Mannan fought off a pair of match points at 9-7 and 9-8 to stay alive. Then it was Jacobs' turn to stay alive after winning a point down 10-9, and she followed with two more points to escape with the win.
 
The most impressive comeback of the day came from Alphabet at fourth singles, as she used a pair of tiebreakers to defeat Perinkolam in two 7-6 (7-5) sets. The junior found herself down 5-2 in the second set at a time in which the overall result was still in doubt, but she clawed back to pull out the win. She broke Perinkolam twice at 5-2 and 5-4 to even the set at five, fighting off a match point at deuce in the 10th game. She held serve down 6-5 to send the set to a breaker, in which she jumped out to a 4-1 lead and held on for the win.
 
Union will return to action tomorrow against New York University beginning at 10 a.m. at Sportime.