Binghamton, NY – The SUNY Oneonta women's tennis program has never even been to a conference final, but after defeating defending champion Geneseo in the semifinals, the Red Dragons found themselves matched against New Paltz with a trip to the NCAA tournament in its sight.  Oneonta was looking to avenge a earlier loss to the Hawks a month ago 5-4.  The Hawks were making their ninth consecutive trip to the finals.  Unfortunately, the Red Dragons magical run came to an end against the more experienced and depth laden lineup with a 5-1 set-back.

Doubles was a tight back and forth affair.  The second seeded duo of freshman Olivia Fraser (Queensbury/Queensbury) and sophomore Mya Lipscomb (Peekskill/Walter Panas) played an incredible match.  The New Paltz number two tandem only last month set back the Red Dragons in lopsided fashion 8-2.  However,  today the match was very tight with the Red Dragons saving a match point and having the opportunity to serve the match out just could not get that elusive last winning point and lost in a close tiebreaker 9-8 (7-5).  At the same time suspense was taking place in the third flight with freshmen Alexandra Dratch (Montgomery/Valley Central) and Madeline Carswell (Albany/Bethlehem) breaking serve when New Paltz was serving for the match.  They got the match even and then later on in the set were also locked into a tiebreaker.  The freshmen duo were down 2-4 in the breaker but came back and pulled the match out 9-8 (9-7) in absolute dramatic fashion.

With only a 2-1 deficit in singles play, the Red Dragons would have had to win four of the six singles contests played.  The experienced New Paltz squad ultimately closed out Oneonta on courts two, five and six.  Noteworthy though, sophomore Julieta Eulau (Oceanside/Oceanside) was up a set and serving for the match when play was suspended on tier one.  On the fourth court freshman Olivia Fraser (Queensbury/Queensbury) dropped her first set but was also ahead and up a service break at 5-3 and was hoping to force a third and deciding set before play was halted.  Back up at the third position Lipscomb dropped the first set and was involved in a very close second set, play was halted when New Paltz clinched.  However,  Lipscomb officially remains undefeated in the 2018 fall campaign.

So the SUNY Oneonta Red Dragons turned in its best fall season in program history and very first trip to a conference final.  They will celebrate the successes of the season and rest until they play their spring season.  Oneonta's spring season opens in Florida with two matches in Orlando the week of March 4^th, 2019.