The Slippery Rock University women’s tennis team suffered a loss to tough Division 1 opponent, St. Bonaventure. The loss gives Slippery Rock a 4-3 record on the season as St. Bonaventure improves to a 2-6 overall record.
“We have never beaten them even when we have had some really good teams,” Rock head coach Matt Meredith said “The main thing I wanted to see is how we competed because it is good competition. We didn’t get blown out and that’s what I am looking for this time of year.”
To start the day, St. Bonaventure took all three double matches. Slippery Rock sophomores Carla Corrochano Moracho and Nina Barbano lost to Gabriella Bowe and Mara Martinez-Santori, 6-3. Slippery Rock juniors Kylee Woodman and Tiffany Kollah also lost 6-3 to Francesca Chin and Dominique Mortier. Finishing up the doubles matches was a 6-1 loss by freshman Amanda Bruscemi and junior Stephanie Fortier by Lauren Doversola and Mariam Skhirtadze.
“We could have played stronger doubles but it is tough when it is just the set,” Meredith explained “I am not a fan of the Division 1 format because you do not warm up with your opponent, you just start and that caught us off guard.”
Two Slippery Rock freshmen really stepped up and proved themselves as competitors with big singles wins over their Division 1 opponents. In the fourth and sixth flights, Bruscemi beat Mortier with scores of 4-6, 7-5 and 10-7 while Allie Welch took down Chin with scores of 2-6, 6-1 and 10-3. Welch has improved her season individual record to 6-4 and Bruscemi took her overall record to .500 with her win.
Coach Meredith praised the freshmen by saying Bruscemi and Welch have been really beneficial for our team this year and they should be able to continue maturing and become impact players for the program in the coming years.
However, the Bonnies’ two losses in singles did not seem to have much effect on their next matches. In the second flight, Barbano and Bowe had a very competitive match. They started the match splitting the opening two sets but Bowe was able to eventually beat down Barbano in the third set to win the contest 6-3, 2-6 and 6-0. In the first and third singles matches, Corrochano and Kollah each lost their matches 6-3, 6-3 to Santori and Skhirtadze. Fortier ended the day for The Rock with a 6-1, 7-5 loss against Doversola in the fifth flight.
The ladies will hope to remain above .500 as they travel down to the warm Florida weather on March 7 for five matches.
“We’ll be playing some tough competition down south, there will not be an easy match down there and it will get us ready for when we come back up to the Rock and facing the tough schedule we have”, Meredith explained.
SRU will take on Southern Indiana in its first spring break matchup.
