Rome, GA — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's tennis team opened up NCAA Tournament play Friday in Rome, Georgia facing Babson College for its first round matchup.
 
The Beavers (4-0 overall) took a 3-0 lead into singles play after sweeping all three doubles matches and ultimately clinched the two wins they needed to defeat the Hawks, 5-0 and eliminate them from national championship contention.

"The Babson lineup was extremely consistent," said SUNY New Paltz coach Rob Bruley. "We were in every point and every game, but that's how it goes in tennis. You have to take your chances, you have to put balls away. We had a nice young team that we put out today, including our two freshmen who gained a lot of experience."
 
Hawks freshman Tatiana Barnett was inserted into the doubles lineup, playing with fellow freshman Loretta Donovan at third doubles. In their first NCAA action of their careers the duo dropped an 8-1 match against Babson. Onalee Batcheller and Alexandra Dratch also suffered a loss against the Beavers, losing 8-3.
 
Trinity Chow and Laura Koob battled at ones, coming back to nearly force a tiebreaker, down 7-6. However, the Beavers' Ashley Avery and Julie Moschella put the game away, winning 8-6 to give their team a commanding advantage heading into singles play. 

"The doubles was very interesting," Bruley said. "It was a tough matchup at two and three although they competed and in first doubles the match turned on one error, but unfortunately it happens. A simple volley was not hit properly and we ended up losing it to go down 3-0."
 
SUNY New Paltz played from behind in most its singles matches, Chow secured two points in her first set with Avery, but fell in the first, 6-2. However, she came back to win set two with six-straight points, finishing in a time as her match went unfinished.
 
Donovan, who was moved up to play sixth singles with the absence of senior Jenna Grandville (graduation), worked to get two points from Babson's Mary Kille, but fell in set one, 6-2 and ended the match trailing in set two, 4-1. Koob fell behind early in her first set at second singles, but rallied to make the score 3-4, then 4-5 in the first set before Madison put away set point to take the lead. Their match ended there, as Babson earned its two victories at fifth and fourth singles.

"I thought the freshmen played with no fear actually, especially Loretta," said Bruley. "Coming into the singles lineup, she handled it extremely well. Even Tatiana, coming into the doubles lineup. I can't wait to have them go again as sophomores next year."
 
The Beavers took a 4-0 lead after earning a victory at fifth singles, as Jane Wang defeated Alex Chimenti, 6-0, 6-1. Babson then officially took the win after Moschella defeated Barnett, 6-0, 6-0.
 
"We pushed them all the way and I thought we gave an excellent account of ourselves," Bruley said. "This team is always hungry for success. They're never willing to settle. They've seen here that we're not that far away from the next level. I think we took away that it's been a tough year… there's always small things that we can work on and looking forward to go in next year with this team plus the two freshmen coming in. New Paltz is in a good position to not only win another SUNYAC Championship but move the program along a little bit [at the national tournament] as well."
 
The Hawks end their 2021 campaign at 7-1 overall and return every player except Grandville to next year's squad. Meanwhile, the Beavers will face Sewanee College in round two Saturday.

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