Women's Tennis Sweeps Doubles but Falls to Saint Joseph

Box Score

NEW LONDON, Conn. - The Mitchell College women's tennis team dropped a 6-3 decision to Saint Joseph College on Saturday afternoon at New London High School.

The Mariners (0-2 overall) swept all three doubles matches but lost to the Blue Jays at every singles spot. Saint Joseph had clinched the match before doubles play began.

Freshmen Julie Felts and Erica Fazio teamed at first doubles to earn an 8-1 win over Kameshia Cooper and Alexandra Vasile. The duo improved to 2-0 on the season in doubles play.

Mitchell's other doubles teams picked up their first victories of the season. Senior Miah Manning paired with freshman Katie Jeon to defeat Sarrina Chisholm and Kaitlin Hurley by a 9-8 final, winning 7-1 in the tiebreaker. Junior Ilana Papernik and freshman Julie Embley picked up a convincing 8-3 win over the team of Shawanna Jefferson and Shaakirah Medford.

In singles play, the best match of the day belonged to Felts and Saint Joseph's Barbara Mach. The two battled through three sets, with Mach pulling out a victory by final scores of 6-1, 5-7 and 6-4. Felts fought back after a rough first set to a 5-5 stalemate in the second set. She held serve to take a 6-5 lead and then broke Mach to even the match at a set apiece.

In the third and deciding set, Mach jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Felts rallied back to tie it up. Mach then won three straight games to take a commanding 5-2 lead and was serving for the match, but Felts broke back and then held serve to make it 5-4. Mach finally closed it out in the 10th game of the set, finishing off a match that lasted more than 2:30.

The rest of the Blue Jays won in straight sets. Results are as follows: Alicia Lienhop defeated Fazio (6-2, 6-1), Laura D'Angelo defeated Manning (6-3, 6-1), Gianna Gurga defeated Papernik (6-1, 6-0), Curley defeated Caitlin Brown (6-0, 6-1) and Cooper defeated Embley (6-0, 6-0).

Mitchell will next play at Anna Maria College on Monday, September 21 at 3:30 p.m.