The women’s tennis team had a busy last few days, picking up a 7-2 win over the Nazareth College Golden Flyers on Sept. 5, participating in the Mary Hosking Invitational on Sept. 7 and 8 and then besting SUNY Brockport 9-0 on Sept. 10 to open up the SUNYAC conference schedule. The Golden Flyers made the short trip down from Rochester to help Geneseo open up its home slate for the fall. Last fall season, the Knights won the match 8-1 on the road, and this season’s version of the local rivalry was much of the same.
The only blemishes of the day resulted from an injury to sophomore Marylen Santos, who still managed to be competitive in both of her matches, losing her first singles match 6-2, 6-4 and her doubles match with junior Amanda Rosati 8-3.
“[Santos] has a recurring shoulder issue,” head coach Jim Chen said. “We are developing a pretty effective underhand serve for [Santos].” The new serve allows her to not give advantage to other players before she can show off her groundstrokes and rallying skills.
With their teammate not at 100 percent, the rest of the Knights stepped up. Juniors Dexuan Yuan, Minxuan Yuan and Rosati and freshmen Maggie Hale and Karli Hollins all picked up singles match victories, and the doubles teams of Yuan-Yuan, and Hale-Hollins also cruised to wins.
At the Mary Hosking Invitational, Geneseo competed against the University of Rochester, Ithaca College, St. Lawrence University and host William Smith College. The tournament did not incorporate team scoring, creating a different atmosphere.
“The pressure [of trying to earn points for the team as a whole] was not there,” Chen said. “Our players were very relaxed.” Chen said the team took the opportunity to practice new strategies that the members would have been wary of trying for the first time in a team-oriented match.
In the singles “B,” or second-highest flight, both Minxuan Yuan and Hollins made the final match, resulting in the duo being declared co-champions of the flight. Santos made it to the semifinals of the “A” flight, while the doubles teams of Santos-Rosati and Hale-Hollins both dropped very close semifinal matches in the “A” and “B” doubles flights.
Finally, the Knights traveled to face their first league opponent of the year at SUNY Brockport. Although the Golden Eagles came into the match undefeated, no player on Geneseo dropped as many as four games in her match, sealing the 9-0 win.
Up next for Geneseo are two home matches on Friday Sept. 13 and Saturday Sept. 14 against SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Oneonta.