Ewing, NJ — After starting the 2021-22 season with consecutive 9-0 wins, The State University of New York at New Paltz women's tennis team (2-1) lost its first match of the year in a close, 5-4 loss to The College of New Jersey (1-0) on Wednesday.

The match came down to the third doubles matchup, when freshman Isabel van der Veen and sophomore Loretta Donovan took their matchup to a crucial tiebreaker match point at 7-7. But Jenny Lordillo and Aira Abalos persevered, winning the final game and the match for the Lions, 8-7. It's just the first regular season loss for SUNY New Paltz since 2019. 

"It was an excellent match," said head coach Rob Bruley. "It came down to one match. It was really close...We had a couple of match points, they had a couple of match points, and it just went against us in that one."

The Lions may be one of, if not, the toughest opponent SUNY New Paltz will have this season. Wednesday's result starts a remaining fall season that featured some of the best out-of-conference teams from the northeast. Similar to the Hawks' dominance, the Lions finished their 2020-21 season with an 11-1 record — only losing in the second round of the NCAA Tournament — and have not lost a regular season match since the 2018-19 season. The two programs previously played each other just twice in history, with the last match on April 24, 2013 when SUNY New Paltz took a 5-4 loss. 

Senior Trinity Chow and freshman Anya Barteck faced Charlotte Roarty and Chase Eisenberg in first doubles, winning the match 8-3. Junior Onalee Batcheller and Senior Alexandra Dratch took their first loss in second doubles of the season to Anusha Rangu and Alexa Vasile, 8-2.

Chow won her first singles matchup against Charlotte Roarty 6-4, 6-4, while Tatiana Barnett beat Sarah Phung in fifth singles 6-4, 7-5 in a tiebreaker second set. Barteck had her greatest challenge of the season in second singles. After losing the first set to Abalos 7-6, she forced a third set with a 7-5 victory. In the third set, she prevailed with a 10-8 third set victory to take the match. Batcheller tried to bring the Hawks' singles win total to four in her third singles match against Eisenberg, but lost 6-2, 7-5. Losses in fourth and sixth singles would seal the 5-4 win for the Lions.

"Overall [for the day], it was a fantastic match really, and it's exactly what we need," said Bruley. "This is the kind of competition that we wanted to be matched up against and to be challenged and I thought we really came through it really well."

SUNY New Paltz returns to action Saturday for the weekend Vassar College Scramble. The first round of the tournament is set to begin at 11 a.m.

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