RESULTS

New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's tennis team concluded the team scoring portion of its fall season with a loss to RPI, 6-3, on Wednesday.

The Engineers, who hosted their home opener, won the match on the strength of two doubles wins and four singles wins on the day. As they have all season, SUNY New Paltz battled in all nine matches beyond the score.

With the loss, it marks the first time since the 2017-18 season, SUNY New Paltz (2-2) has lost back-to-back matches in a season after falling to The College of New Jersey Sep. 9, 5-4. It's also just the third time that the Hawks have lost a match in the regular season and the first time that they have lost more than one match over the entire season, including the postseason, since 2018.

That's likely a testament to the tough schedule head coach Rob Bruley prepared against top northeast teams like the Engineers throughout the fall season after the Hawks started with back-to-back 9-0 wins against SUNY Cortland and Oswego State.

Doubles play started with two losses in second and third doubles. SUNY New Paltz junior Onalee Batcheller and Alexandra Dratch battled in second doubles, but fell to Krisia and Lorna Flores Gonzalez, 8-5. In third doubles, sophomores Tatiana Barnett and Loretta Donovan lost to Sonya Khudyakov and Natalie Cipriano in a similar 8-5 defeat. The Hawks secured a doubles win when senior Trinity Chow and freshman Anya Barteck, who faced the Flores Gonzalez sisters in the ITA regionals Saturday, defeated Alex Mednikova and Rani Jones in a contested battle, 8-7, after an 8-6 tiebreaker.

Singles play started with the conclusion of the sixth singles match, where Donovan lost 6-0, 6-3 to Khudyakov. Chow lost just her fourth singles match in her collegiate career after a loss to Mednikova in first singles, 6-1, 6-2. Senior Alex Chimenti took a tough 6-3, 6-3 loss to Krisia Flores Gonzalez, the clinching fifth win for the Engineers. Batcheller, after taking an early 3-0 lead in the first set in third singles against Jones, lost the remaining six points in the set, then lost the second set 6-2. Barnett impressed with a strong showing in fourth singles, taking a 6-2, 6-4 win against Brooke Bauer. Barteck continued her stellar freshman campaign in second singles against Lorna Flores Gonzalez, coming back from a 6-2 loss in the first set with two great battles in the next two sets, 6-4 and 10-8, to win the final match of the day.

SUNY New Paltz concludes the fall 2021 season with its first and only home meet, the New Paltz Scramble, on Saturday. The match will start at 10 a.m.

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