Women's Tennis Falls to Cardinals; Post-season Hopes Dashed
Pittsford, NY- The St. John Fisher College women's tennis team swept The Sage Colleges Gators, 9-0 in Empire 8 Conference play. The Cardinals advance to 8-2, while jumping to 6-2 in the league. With the loss, the Gators fall to 9-4, while dropping to 4-4 in the Empire 8. The Cardinal tennis team secures the third seed in the Empire 8 Conference tournament slated to begin Friday, October 13, while with the loss, Sage's hopes of a post-season bid are dashed after having lost the tie-breaker to Houghton for the No. 4 seed.
At No. 1 singles, Sage's sophomore Sammantha Montague (Glenville, NY/Scotia-Glenville) dropped her match to Kaili Saffran, 6-3, 6-2, while at No. 2 singles Taylor Slink beat sophomore Abbey Clobridge (West Sand Lake, NY/Averill Park), 7-6 (7-5), 6-0.
Sarah Sorrentino was challenged in third singles, but came away with a victory, recording scores of 3-6, 6-3 and 11-9 by Sage's sophomore Rebecca Jackson (Saugerties, NY/John A. Coleman).
The Cardinals also took all of the doubles wins on the day. Saffran and Bell started out the wins in first doubles beating Montague and Jackson, 8-6.
Sage will wrap the fall season on Wednesday, October 11 hosting Mt. St. Mary College in the regular-season finale in conjunction with Senior Day at 3:30 p.m. at Prospect Park. The Gators will honor their four seniors on Wednesday, Samantha Dibbell (Hunter, NY/Tannersville Central), Shanice Mendoza (North Plainfield, NJ/North Plainfield), Lindsey Tolman (Little Falls, NY/Little Falls), and Shanessa Mendoza (North Plainfield, NJ/North Plainfield).
For Sage's head coach Tom Fashouer, who is now in his fourth season at the helm of the team, the nine wins is a personal-best for the Gator mentor. Sage has nine wins, which ties the program's mark for the second most wins in a season. The 2009 team went 9-5, while the school's mark for most women's tennis wins in a season is 10 set by the 2008 Gators that went 10-5 overall and 7-2 in the Skyline Conference.
