The Slippery Rock Women’s team lost their first match, against West Virginia State, but won one their second, against Davis & Elkins, this past weekend, ending their three-game losing streak.
The team now stands at an overall record of 7-9 while 0-3 in conference play with four games left on the season.
The competition got underway for The Rock Saturday afternoon when the team faced off against West Virginia State University in a non-conference match.
The pair of sophomore Amanda Bruscemi and freshman Lacy Cohen ended their match first, at first doubles, losing 8-2. Up next to finish was the duo of seniors Kylee Woodman and Stephanie Fortier, at second doubles, who were able to even up the score for The Rock, winning their match 8-1. The win put the duo at 11-10 on the season, a team high. However, The Rock saw themselves down 2-1 heading into singles competition when senior Tiffany Kollah and sophomore Allie Welch, in third doubles, went down 8-4.
Leading by one point entering singles competition, West Virginia State opened up singles competition winning three straight matches, clinching the win in the process.
Kollah started off the three-match slide, losing 6-0 twice at second singles. Bruscemi followed suit losing 6-0 and 6-1, respectively, at third singles. Cohen got bested 6-1 and 6-2, respectively, from the first singles spot, rounding out the three-match slide. A combined four points were won by The Rock to start off singles competition.
Still, with nothing to play for, The Rock finished the contest strong, winning the last three singles matches to make the final score 5-4.
Welch led the charge from fourths single, besting her opponent 6-4, 2-6 and 10-8, respectively, picking up her seventh win on the season in the process.
To round things out, Woodman continued the winning, obtaining a win by default. The win was Woodman’s seventh on the season as well. Fortier, fifth singles, had to rally for her win, defeating her opponent and concluding the game, 5-7, 7-6 and 11-9, respectively. Coincidentally, the win was Fortier’s seventh on the season, a theme of the day.
On the second match of the weekend, The Rock saw their three-game losing streak get broken, earning a 6-3 victory against Davis & Elkins Sunday afternoon.
The Rock took two of three games out of the gate in doubles completion. The duo of Bruscemi and Cohen went down at first doubles 8-3, but business picked up after that for The Rock.
Fortier and Woodman, second doubles, clapped back for The Rock, besting their opponents 8-3. Welch and Kollah, third doubles, had a tougher time securing the win, but did, defeating their opponents 8-5.
The Rock kept the momentum going upon entering singles competition when Bruscemi, in third singles, downed her opponent 6-0 and 6-3.
Cohen, first singles, hung in there as long as she could, but went down 7-5 and 6-1, respectively. Kollah, in second singles, followed suit, losing 6-3 and 6-1.
After a hot start, The Rock saw itself evened up at three games apiece heading into the now vital remaining three singles games. With that being said, as was the case on Saturday, when The Rock needed its back half of singles competitors to pick up the slack, they did.
The Rock went on to win the remaining three games, and the match, to set the final match score at 6-3. Welch, fourth singles, started off shaky, but regrouped, and won 0-6, 6-3 and 6-1, respectively. Fortier, fifth singles, downed her opponent 6-0 and 6-3, clinching the match in the process.
To round things out, Woodman, sixth singles, finished strong, defeating her opponent 6-1 and 6-2.
The Rock will look to add to their winning streak, continuing its four-match road trip when it returns to conference (PSAC) competition against Edinboro University Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.
