Saints Win Five of Six Matches in Day One of NYS Championships
by:
Tara FreemanOlivia Arroyo (pictured) and Sami Miller beat their opponents from Nazareth on Friday.
Oct. 12: The St. Lawrence University women's tennis team had a stellar opening day of the New York State Championships on Friday in Ithaca, NY. The Saints, who enter their final weekend of non-traditional play this fall, posted three doubles wins and two singles wins to go a combined 5-1 on the day.
St. Lawrence advances two doubles teams to Saturday's semifinal matches. Senior captain Shannon Murphy and sophomore Anna Young defeated Ithaca, 8-5, at second doubles and will take on a duo from New York University tomorrow afternoon.
At third doubles, sophomores Olivia Arroyo and Sami Miller topped Nazareth by the score of 8-2. The duo will also take on a team from NYU in the third flight doubles semifinals.
Sophomore Elkie Vandenbeemt and rookie Morgan McNeal earned a victory over RIT by the score of 8-4 at first doubles. In the semifinal, however, the duo lost a tight 8-6 match to NYU.
Vandenbeemt earned a first round singles victory in first singles with a sweep of her Brockport opponent, 8-0. She will battle RIT's Elizabeth McGrail tomorrow for a spot in the semifinal round.
McNeal came out on top in an 8-5 match with an opponent from Hamilton and will play Winnie Yeates of Vassar tomorrow in the second round of second singles.
Arroyo and Murphy each had first round byes at third and fourth singles, respectively. Arroyo will play either Christine Cary (Naz) or Brittany Amari (RIT) tomorrow, and Murphy will take on either Liz Detwiler (Hamilton) or Natalie Santiago (Vassar).
Young and Miller will play their first rounds at fifth and sixth singles, respectively, tomorrow morning at 9:00 am.