The women’s tennis team lost a tough match to Hamilton College last Thursday, 6-3.
Wins for the Yellowjackets came at No. 1 doubles, No. 2 singles and No. 6 singles.
At No. 1 doubles, the steady sophomore duo of Colleen Cross and Alexa Perry crushed Hamilton’s Sarah Coleman and Katie Donovan, 8-1.
The ‘Jackets No. 2 doubles team of freshman Jill Grieshaber and senior co-captain Jaymi Della fell to Hamilton’s identical twin doubles team of Marni and Kara Powers, 8-2.
At No. 3 doubles, the freshman team of Sanjana Prabhakar and Mel Beckmann lost to Elizabeth Goheen and Ashley Pardoe of Hamilton, 8-3.
After taking the first set 6-4, No. 1 singles player Cross lost a close match to Hamilton’s Sarah Coleman, losing the next set 2-6 and then finally losing in a super tiebreaker 9-11. This was one match spectators found difficult to watch, as Coleman’s sportsmanship was horrid.
After several discrepancies in the score, Coleman mocked Cross’s attempts to announce the score more completely as to avoid more confusion. However, despite this awful display of misconduct, Cross managed to keep her cool and act very appropriately for the rest of the match.
At No. 2 singles, Prabhakar defeated Donovan 6-3, 7-5, taking the second win for UR.
Both Powers sisters took victories over UR in singles – Kara defeated Perry, 6-4, 6-0 at No. 3 and Marni defeated Della, 6-2, 6-1 at No. 4. The Yellowjackets’ Grieshaber lost to Pardoe, 6-1, 6-3 at No. 5. UR’s final win came from Beckmann at No. 6, defeating Lindsay Walsh, 6-4, 6-3.
“Mel is very tough,” Perry said of teammate Beckmann’s continued singles victories. “Tennis isn’t just about having the skill, it’s also about being prepared mentally and Mel has a very strong head game. She comes onto the court not only ready to play, but she is out there to win.”
The ‘Jackets will need to maintain this toughness as they head to the University Athletic Association Championships set to take place April 21 to 23 at Emory University.
“The UAA is as tough as it’s ever been,” Cross said. “Teams that were once mediocre are now great. But we have a stronger and deeper team and are really looking forward to being able to prove that we are a substantial team, just like all the others.”
With four of the seven other UAA teams holding national rankings, play will certainly be difficult for the Yellowjackets, but they are confident that they too are ready to bring competition this coming weekend.
Sall can be reached at dsall@campustimes.org.
