ORLANDO, Fla. – The Union College women's tennis team started its Spring Break trip with a busy and successful first day of competition on Sunday at the USTA National Campus, posting a pair of 5-2 wins over Luther College and Hendrix College.
 
Junior Chara Meidani led the way for Union (4-2) with a perfect 3-0 record on the day, while classmate Kennedy Alexis and senior Paige Tromblee both went 2-0. In all, eight different players recorded at least one win and six had at least two victories for the Garnet Chargers.
 
Union 5, Luther 2
 
Union started its spring trip on the right foot with a 5-2 win over Luther. Meidani was a dual winner for the Garnet Chargers and six teammates had one win apiece in the victory.
 
The Garnet Chargers battled to earn the first point of the day, taking two of the three doubles matches to gain the early upper hand. Meidani and Alexis started off with a 6-3 win at the top flight over Julia Moreno and Allie Christensen. At the third flight, junior Sydney Alphabet and first-year Calista Finkelstein saw a 5-1 lead turn into a 5-6 deficit against Rafaela Queiroga Taveres and Montserrat Ramirez, but the pair settled down to send the match to a tiebreaker where they came back from 3-0 down to score seven straight points and pull out the 7-6 (7-3) win.
 
Singles play featured several very close matches, but Union went 3-1 in third-set supertiebreakers to pull out the victory.
 
Meidani again set the tone for her team with a quick 6-2, 6-3 win over Ramirez at the top flight. After Luther (9-4) got on the board at fifth singles, junior Claire Langille came back from a set down to knock off Moreno at sixth singles, 1-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8), and put Union on the cusp of a win. First-year Samantha Jacobs provided the winning point at the third flight, as she also fought back from a first-set loss to defeat Riley O'Donnell in a breaker, 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-5). Junior Skylar Semon earned a supertiebreaker win as well to give Union its fifth and final point, defeating Lena Lichau, 6-3, 6-7 (8-10), 1-0 (10-3) in second-singles action.
 
Union 5, Hendrix 2
 
Tromblee was the lone Garnet Charger to earn two wins in the second contest of the day, as Union rebounded from dropping the doubles point to win five straight singles matches and finish off an undefeated day.
 
Hendrix (3-5) started the afternoon by taking two of the three doubles matches, with Union's lone win coming at the second flight, where Alexis and Tromblee pulled out a 6-2 win over Kate Adcox and Ayden Huckelbury.
 
Finkelstein started the comeback effort with an efficient 6-0, 6-0 win over Huckelbury at fourth singles. Langille followed at the fifth flight with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Adcox, in which she lost the first game of the match before joining Finkelstein in rattling off 12 straight wins. Meidani earned the team's third straight point with a pair of 6-1 sets over Emma Self at the top flight, jumping out to 4-0 leads in both frames on the way to a win.
 
Tromblee provided a fourth straight singles win to clinch the match for Union, winning five of the first six games in both frames of her 6-4, 6-1 sixth-singles victory over Taylor Harbin. Semon added the fifth point for Union once again at the second flight, battling back to win the final three games of the second set in a 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Caroline Lasley.
 
The Garnet Chargers will take a well-deserved day off from competition tomorrow before returning to action on Tuesday with a 12:30 p.m. matchup against George Fox University.