October 4, 2016

Oneonta, NY – The SUNY Oneonta Red Dragon women's tennis squad returned late last night after a trip to Long Island where  they defeated the St. Joseph's Golden Eagles.  A late night and a quick turnaround did not slow the Red Dragons down today.  They clashed with their city rivals on the campus of SUNY Oneonta and came away with a rousing 7-1 defeat of the Hartwick Hawks.

The doubles stanza saw the Red Dragons jump out to a 3-0 lead.  The number one team of senior Alana Green (Pittsford/Pittsford) and Freshman Jacqueline Guidice had little trouble dismantling their Hawk foes and won 8-3.  The number two flighted team of senior Kayla Houle (Apalachin/Owego Free Academy) and junior Kaitlin Ferrara did have some challenges with a very formidable opponent from Hartwick.  The Hawks duo kept things close and forced the Red Dragons into a tiebreaker with great net play.  The Red Dragons pair did withstand the onslaught and took the tiebreaker and the match 9-8 (7-4).  The number three team of sophomore Faith Haedrich (Islip/Islip) and junior Samantha Felice (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) easily won with a bagel 8-0.

In singles the Red Dragons never were in any trouble as they held a 3-0 lead when the stanza began.  The only hiccup for the Red Dragons came at the number one position when Green split sets and then dropped the super tiebreaker with incredibly long rallies, the match score was 6-1, 6-7 (4-7) 4-10.  Number two Guidice was dominant in her 6-1, 6-0 triumph.  Other singles players from the Red Dragon squad also were triumphant in numbers four, five and six.   Haedrich stayed on the winning track at the fourth spot after a long match the night prior and was victorious today 6-1, 6-0.  Houle split sets and then held on to win the super breaker and the match 6-3, 0-6 (10-5) in fifth flight.  Felice in the number six spot doubled up her opponent in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.  Back in the number three singles flight sophomore Michelle Halpern's (Rye Brook/Blind Brook) match was halted due to darkness with Halpern ahead one set to love and tied 1-1 in the second set.  The dual match was put in the books and recorded as a 7-1 win for the Red Dragons with one match suspended.  The victory got the Red Dragons to a very impressive 10-3 record on the fall season going into the SUNY Athletic Conference Championships this coming weekend.

The Red Dragons will travel to Binghamton as the number two seed in the Eastern Conference to begin their quest for a SUNY Athletic Conference championship with a match v SUNY Brockport on Saturday, October 8^th at 4:30 PM at the Binghamton Tennis Center.