The Geneseo tennis team kept its undefeated season alive with a decisive 7-2 victory over rival SUNY New Paltz on Sept. 12. “We came upon a real midseason test when we played New Paltz,” head coach Jim Chen said. The Knights have played New Paltz in the past two SUNYAC Conference Championships. Led by juniors Marylen Santos and Cat Crummey––who won both their singles and doubles matches––the Knights made the match theirs.
Santos was named SUNYAC Women’s Tennis Singles Player of the Week and Crummey joined her in the Doubles Team of the Week.
“I want to push Santos and Crummey. I think right now, they are the best in SUNYAC,” Chen said.
Geneseo swept doubles play behind the play of senior Amanda Rosati and sophomore Karli Hollins, along with senior Minxuan Yuan and sophomore Maggie Hale who cruised to an 8-3 victory. Singles play was capped off with wins from senior Dexuan Yuan and junior Mai Hashimoto to ensure the 7-2 win for the Knights.
Although the Knights have outscored their opponents 34 sets to two, Chen is far from satisfied. “We don’t want it to be that we’re not prepared––that we are complacent––because it could easily turn,” he said. “We need to be prepared both physically and mentally.”
Although the Knights have been dominating so far this season, the competition is set to get even tougher. “We have tough matches coming up in the St. Lawrence Tournament, at Hamilton [College] and against [the University of] Rochester; all ranked opponents,” Chen said. “We are working so hard to get to where we need to be.”
Although the team has had a successful history in the SUNYAC, it has failed to make a really deep NCAA run in previous years because of its lack of consistent doubles play in the postseason. This season, Geneseo has posted a doubles record of 18-3.
“The fact that we are 4-0 shows the tremendous work we have done from preseason until now in forming doubles teams,” Chen said.
The Knights have continued to play fundamentally sound tennis that has them playing at an extremely high level. Because of this, Chen is very optimistic for his team’s future.
“I want us to be the best in the country,” he said. “I want us to go to the NCAA and dominate; that is what our goal is.”