In only their second season as a varsity program, the Mount Ida College women's tennis team will advance to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) post season with an 8-1 victory over hosting St. Joseph College (CT) Saturday afternoon. The Mustangs improve to an overall record of 5-7 going 3-5 in GNAC play.
Mount Ida dominated a senior led Blue Jays team winning 8-3 in number one doubles sticking to their aggressive net play and fighting windy conditions. In singles freshman Emilie Cloutier (Lewiston, ME/Lewiston) wasted no time in dismissing Blue Jays number one senior without surrendering a game winning 6-0, 6-0.
Number six player Nanouma Joachim (Lynn, MA/Classical) showed her vast improvement over the season as she won 6-2, 6-0 and notched an early victory for the Mustangs.
The match of the day was senior Jessica Lindquist (Killingworth, CT/Haddam-Killingworth) who has saved her best tennis for last as she smartly changed strategies after dropping the first set to come back and win both the tiebreaker in the second 7-6 and an exciting super tiebreaker 10-8.
Sophomore Amy Warner (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) collected Mount Ida's eighth win of the day with a 6-4, 6-2 win and sophomore Melissa Smith (Warren, CT/Wamogo Regional) lost a tough match in the super tiebreaker.
"To make the GNAC Championships in only the second year of this program in a very competitive league is beyond what we could have hoped for," said head coach John T. Nestel. "These girls deserve all the credit for working hard, persevering and implementing new strategies and skills to their games."
Mount Ida finishes the regular season Monday at Curry College and will prepare for post-season play on Wednesday.