The Lehman College women’s tennis team had their two match winning streak on Friday afternoon as they fell to the Baruch College Bearcats by a score of 8-1 at the U.S. National Tennis Center in Queens. The Bearcats improved their record to 6-2 overall and 3-1 in CUNYAC, while visiting Lehman dropped to 3-7 overall and 3-2 in conference action.
The Bearcats got off to a fast start in the match, capturing all three doubles matches. At No. 1 doubles, Baruch’s Monika Maiellano and Alexandra Vamanu needed tie-breakers (8-8, 10-5) to defeat Lehman’s Evauna Neville and Aurora Peters. No. 2 doubles saw the Bearcats’ Irina Piskunova and Miriam Mkrtchyan down the Lightning’s duo of Gabriela Harewood and Mina Jeung 8-0, at No. 3 doubles, Lehman’s Amaia Liriano and Juyoung Kwon fell to Baruch’s Shalanda Graham and Maryiya Korobkova, 8-0.
When play moved to singles, the Bearcats continued to apply the pressure, capturing five of the six singles matches. The lone victory for the Lightning came at No. 1 singles where Neville turned back Maiellano, 7-5, 6-2. In two other competitive singles duals, Piskunova downed Peters 6-1, 6-4 at No. 2 set singles, and at No. 3 singles it was Vamanu downing Harewood 6-1, 6-4. Following the loss, Lehman College Head Coach Zack Davis gave his thoughts.
“It was a difficult loss for us today, but we’ve been playing a lot better lately and we gave it are all on the court this afternoon,” Davis said. “Now it’s all about staying confident and continuing to improve down the stretch of this season as we get ready to head into the CUNYAC playoffs.”
The Lightning will have to regroup quickly, as they’ll take on non-conference opponent Mills College on Saturday afternoon at the APEX Tennis Courts, with match time scheduled for 1:00pm.