Box Score
The Lehman College women’s tennis team (12-7 Overall, 5-4 CUNYAC) saw their run at a CUNYAC championship come to an end on Friday afternoon as the No. 4 seeded Lightning were defeated by the No. 1 seeded Hawks of Hunter College (10-1 Overall, 9-0 CUNYAC) in the 2009 CUNYAC semifinal round on Friday afternoon at the U.S. National Tennis Center by a score of 5-0.
The Lightning, who were coming into the match having won seven of their previous eight contests, were hoping to jump out to an early advantage by setting the tone in doubles play, but it was the Hawks seizing a commanding lead as Hunter captured all three doubles sets. Hunter’s Anna Vagner and Jessica Yi quickly defeated Lehman’s Natalee Smith and Ravnit Bhatia 8-1 at No. 3 doubles. The next doubles match to finish was No. 1, where Hunter’s standout duo of Evgeniya Kim and Ericka Jaramillo turned back Lehman’s pairing of Evauna Neville and Aurora Peters by a score of 8-3, and finally, at No. 2 doubles it was Lehman’s Gabrela Harewood and Melissa Hemick falling to the Hawks’ Stefanie Smith and Veronica Efimenko by a score of 8-4.
Only two singles matches were completed, and since Hunter won both of those, the match was called, as the bylaws for of the CUNY Athletic Conference call for any tournament game to be completed when one team officially wins five sets. The two completed contests included the No. 2 singles battle where Vagner downed Peters, 6-0, 6-1, and No. 5 singles as Jaramillo turned back Smith, 6-1, 6-0. Following the match, Head Coach Zack Davis congratulated his team on a great season.
“This team played with heart all year long, and that’s truly all you can ask for out of your student-athletes,” Davis said. “The group really took a liking to each other and developed confidence in each other, and that chemistry produced results on the court. We’re disappointed that we lost today, but we’re happy about the season we had and we’re looking forward to taking the next step in 2010.”