On Friday, September 17, the NVU-Lyndon women’s tennis team lost to sister college NVU-Johnson 0-9 in their first home game since COVID. This match was the first of the North Atlantic Conference games, which determines what college teams advance to playoffs.
The afternoon match began with a fury of flying tennis balls in the doubles matches. The pairs playing for Lyndon were Renee Chaples and Devon Kibbey, Lexi Foley and Hailey Demers, and Selena Porter and Rebakah Delgado. All three pairs were bested in their matches by the Johnson women, each losing 8-1, 8-3, and 8-0 respectively. Players on Lyndon’s team remarked the need for more doubles practice for the team. A lack of practice led to overall unsynchronized plays that Johnson capitalized on to secure their wins.
In singles play, our fledgling team was unable to secure any match wins against Johnson, who entered with a strong lead and maintained it throughout. The Johnson women dominated the field maintain control of the majority of serves and winning the games quickly.
Lyndon junior Lexi Foley was able to fight back in her second game against Faith Mead and score one point and a series of deuces in an attempt at a comeback. However, Mead secured a 6-0, 6-1 victory in what would be the longest-lasting match of the game. Lyndon’s Emma Powers played a tight match against Johnson’s Amanda Rosabalbo. The two were in a stalemate throughout the match, when one scored a point the other would follow. Their back and forth exchanges had the audience on edge of their seats. It was the closest game of the afternoon, but unfortunately for Lyndon, Rosabalbo was able to score a point in the tie-breaking serve and took the tiebreaker 8-6 and the match 8-7. While they were unable to beat Johnson, Lyndon played strong throughout their games.
Last year, Lyndon’s women’s tennis team consisted of two players and they were unable to have a proper season. The resurgence in the sport after surviving the worst of the COVID pandemic shows the students continued interest in sports around campus. However, now that the team has been rebuilt with inexperienced players, they need to continue to practice and compete to build up the strength needed to dominate matches.
The Hornets currently stand 0-8 on the season, having hosted three home matches and driven out to five away match-ups. The final women’s tennis game of the season is scheduled for tomorrow at SUNY Plattsburgh at 4:00 PM.
Feature Photo by Isabella Mertens || NVU-Lyndon’s Selena Porter returns the ball.