The Mount Ida College women's tennis program kicked off their inaugural season this past Saturday with a non-conference home match against visiting Lesley University falling 7-2. The Mustangs fall to 0-1 overall with their first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) match-up coming this Saturday.
Mustang freshman Amy Warner (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) had an outstanding overall day winning her first ever college singles match 6-4, 6-5 against Lily McCausland (Mad River Valley, VT/Harwood Union). In her double victory, Warner senior captain Jessica Lindquist (Killingworth, CT/Haddam-Killingworth) took down Lynx freshmen Brenna Donovan (Hingham, MA/Hingham) and Nicole Smith (Rindge, NH/Dublin School) by a score of 8-3. The other two doubles match ups of Ariel Rich (Somerville/ MA/Somerville)/ Melissa Smith (Warren, CT/Wamogo Regional) and Veronica Deciccio (Stonington, CT/Stonington)/Whitney Dosik (New York, NY/Winston Prep School) fought hard against a talented team from Lesley College but both lost 8-2.
The top four players for the Mustangs started singles play to round out the match. Lindquist was overpowered in the first set but changed tactics and competed hard before losing the final set in a tiebreaker.
Mount Ida's Rich hit some spectacular ground strokes and fought through some early season soreness before dropping her match 6-4, 6-4. Smith and Deciccio competed well but were overmatched in their match as was Senior Dosik who gave her best each and every point before falling at the sixth position.
The match of the week was Warner who practiced hard in preseason and came back from a deficit of 5-3 in the first set.
"Warner played this match like a veteran player adjusting her tactics and executing at a crucial time in the match and fought from behind to win the first set 7-5", said Coach Nestel. She then was down again 3-0 in the second and never gave up and after long rallies from corner to corner captured her first collegiate singles win 6-4 in the final set.
"I am very proud that we competed hard from start to finish and have an enthusiastic team both in practice and the match. This is a good start to our tennis program"
The Mustangs will stay home and host their first GNAC women's tennis match this coming Saturday against Emerson College starting at 10:00 a.m.
Scores:
Singles:
J. Lindquist lost 6-1, 7-6 (7-1) C. Mullen
A. Warner Def L. Mclausland 6-4, 7-5
A. Rich lost to B. Donovan 6-4, 6-4
M. Smith lost N Smith 6-2, 6-0
V. Deciccio lost C. Cingure 6-1, 6-1
W. Doskik lost 6-0, 6-1
Doubles:
Lindquist/Warner def Donovan/Smith 8-3
Rich/Smith lost Mullen/Zingale 8-2
Deciccio/Dosik lost McClausland/Cigure 8-2