The Slippery Rock University women’s tennis team lost to the University of Charleston 6-3 Saturday afternoon in Indiana, Pa., a neutral site, in a non-conference game.
The loss clinches a sub five hundred season for The Rock, their second such finish in the past three seasons. The team sits at a 7-11 overall record while 0-4 in conference play with two games left on the season.
The Rock’s season took a nosedive in a three-game stretch that left the team at 6-9. The absences of juniors Carla Corrochano Moracho and Nina Barbano, both suffering season-ending injuries mid-season, affected the team.
In the 2014-2015 season Barbano lead the team with 15 singles wins while her and Moracho lead the team with 10 doubles wins. Last year, Barbano lead with 17 singles wins, 32 combined the last two years, while Corrochano tied for second with two others who had 14. The pair went on to lead the team with 10 doubles wins again as well.
Competition with Charleston kicked off with doubles action. The pair of sophomore Amanda Bruscemi and fresman Lacy Cohen, first doubles, fished their match first in a loss, 8-4. Next up to finish were the duo of senior Tiffany Kollah and sophomore Allie Welch, third doubles, who countered a Charleston win with one of their own to a dominant score of 8-1. To round out doubles action were seniors Stephanie Fortier and Kylee Woodman, second doubles, who could not keep the momentum going, losing 8-3.
The game score was 2-1 Charleston heading into singles competition.
Kyle Woodman, sixth singes, was able to avenge her doubles loss just minutes later when she downed her singles opponent, giving up one point, winning 6-1 and 6-0, respectively.
The game score was back even at two with five matches left.
Bruscemi, third singles, was not able to follow through, getting bested by her opponent 6-2 and 6-0. Welch, fourth singles, suffered the same fate, losing to her opponent 6-2 twice. Welch’s loss gave Charleston the first consecutive wins of the game at two. Now up 4-2, Charlestown was one match away from clinching the win.
Cohen put up a solid fight in first singles, but could not stop Charleston from clinching the win, losing 6-3 twice.
To round things out, Kollah, second singles, with nothing to play for, went down as well 6-2 and 6-3. However, to close out the game, Fortier, fifth singles, took care of business in dramatic fashion, winning her match 7-6, 3-6 and 10-6.
With no more chances to break even on the season, The Rock will look to salvage the season with back-to-back home games Thursday and Friday against Clarion University and California University (Pa.).
