The Slippery Rock University women’s tennis team were bested 9-0 Tuesday afternoon, facing no. 46 Mercyhurst University in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Western division match at home.
The lost puts the team at an overall 6-8 record, 0-3 in league matches, Mercyhurst moved to a 10-1 record overall, and 2-0 in the PSAC-West competition.
The match started off in doubles action with the pair of sophomore Amanda Bruscemi and freshman Lacy Cohen playing at first doubles. Mercyhurst got off to the good start, defeating the Slippery Rock pairing 8-2.
Seniors Kylee Woodman and Stephanie Fortier, who were assigned possibly the toughest task of the day, went up against Mercyhurst’s no. 20 nationally ranked doubles pair of Annie Balch and Saioa Gomez de Segura. Woodman and Fortier battled hard against the duo, but fell short 8-3.
The most competitive doubles match came from the pair of sophomore Allie Welch and senior Tiffany Kollah. However, Slippery Rock fell short once again, narrowly losing 9-8.
Mercyhurst went on to clinch the victory when the singles competition begun. Bruscemi went down in third singles, losing 6-1 and 6-2. Then the win became official when Woodman also lost 6-1 twice at the sixth singles spot
Cohen had her work cut out for her in singles competition, being tasked with facing de Segura, a three-time PSAC individual champion. Cohen put in a solid effort in the first singles match-up but lost 6-3 and 6-4.
To round things out, Kollah, coming off a close loss in doubles competition was bested 6-3 and 6-0, respectively at second singles while Fortier went down 6-1 twice at fifth singles. Finally, Welch ended play on the day, losing 6-7, 6-2, and 10-6, respectively in the most competitive singles series in the match.
The Slippery Rock women’s tennis team will look to get back on the winning track in West Virginia this weekend with two non-conference matches against West Virginia State and Davis & Elkins, respectively.
