The Stony Brook tennis team split their weekend contests, defeating Lehigh 4-3 Saturday afternoon while falling to Drexel 4-2 Sunday morning.
“We had a great team win over Lehigh on Saturday as we were down the entire match,” head coach Gary Glassman said in a press release. “We came out and competed well against Drexel, especially in doubles, but came up just short.”
The team struggled to gain momentum early in the contest against Lehigh. The duo of senior Elizabeth Tsvetkov and freshman Maria Pinto Ribeiro dropped both of their singles contests, as well as their doubles match against senior Christina Auyeung and freshman Casey Zhong 6-3. A 6-4 doubles loss by junior Ester Chikvashvili and freshman Nolwenn Cardoso to sophomore Sibel Can and junior Grace Lin gave the Mountain Hawks the doubles point, putting the Seawolves in an 0-3 hole.
However, Chikvashvili and junior Ana Rodriguez controlled the court in singles action, winning in two games and cutting the Mountain Hawks overall lead to one point. Sophomore Amanda Foo responded to a 0-6 first match defeat with 6-4 and 6-3 victories, erasing the deficit and forcing a match between Cardoso and senior Briana Maravich to determine a victor. Cardoso maintained her composure following a close 6-7 first match loss with 6-3 and 6-2 victories over Maravich to complete the comeback for Stony Brook.
While the team had success on Saturday, it failed to maintain it in Sunday’s matchup against Drexel. The duos of Chikvashvili and Cardoso and Tsvetkov and junior Anne-Kathrin Hierl won their matches 6-4 and 6-2 , respectively, to gain the doubles point against Drexel. Tsvetkov earned the first point for the Seawolves by defeating sophomore Ghita Benhadi 6-0. The Dragons responded, however, winning four straight contests to secure a 4-2 victory.
The team will look to rebound from the loss when they travel to Fairfield, Connecticut to face Fairfield on Friday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. and Sacred Heart on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 4 p.m.
Kenneth Fermin
Kenneth is a sophomore journalism major. Kenneth started writing for the sports section in his first semester freshman year and was promoted to assistant sports editor as a sophomore. He also has a great passion for sports broadcasting, working for WUSB 90.1 and Stony Brook Sportsbreak in the past. Contact: [email protected]
