Despite being awarded two points due to injury, the Stony Brook women’s tennis team failed to capitalize on the opportunity, notching its sixth-straight loss.
The Seawolves (2-11, 1-2 CAA) traveled to New York City to take on the St. John’s Red Storm (6-7, 0-2 Big East) on Wednesday. Despite having no players available for the third double match and sixth single match of the day, the Red Storm defeated Stony Brook 4-2.
The Seawolves nearly squandered their advantage in doubles, as Mia Palladino and Elena Lobo-Corral fell 6-3 to Mouna Bouzgarrou and Arina Gumerova in first doubles. But, the team bounced back in second doubles as Kristi Boro and Debby Mastrodima were up against the Red Storm’s Noemi Babikova and Nicoline Sartz-Lunde. Boro and Mastrodima competed in their first double match of the spring season and came out on top with a 7-6 victory off a tiebreaker win of 7-4.
In third doubles, Stony Brook caught a lucky break, as Sara Medved and Cornelia Bruu-Syversen were granted the first double win of the day, with St. John’s not having players available to compete against them.
This doubles point win was the Seawolves’ first since Feb. 24th against Monmouth. Head Coach Thaigo Dualiby was proud of the team’s effort in today’s match, especially under the spotlight for his young team.
“We played good doubles today,” Dualiby said in an interview with The Statesman. “Our on-court positioning was overall better and we had the highest percentage of plays with the right intent so far this year even though we didn’t always execute it as well as we would like. It was great to see improvement and good decisions under pressure.”
The Seawolves had limited success in singles, as Pallindo was beaten 6-1 in back-to-back sets by Bouzgarrou in first singles. Lobo-Corral, who won the first set 6-4 against Gumerova, walked away with an unfinished second singles match due to scoring.
In third singles, Boro was swept in two sets by Sartz-Lunde, 6-0 and 6-1. Bruu-Syversen put up a more valiant effort in fourth singles, narrowly losing the first set 7-5 before being dominated in the second set 6-1 against Babikova. In fifth singles, Medved was defeated similarly to Boro, getting swept 6-0 in both sets by Alicia Gomez.
Mastrodima was awarded the win and a point in sixth singles due to St. John’s inability to field a competitor.
Dualiby made no excuse for the team’s disappointing single performance as despite St John’s depleted roster, they were the better single team today.
“We got outplayed in singles today,” Dualiby said.
The Seawolves continue their long-season road trip, going to New Jersey. They will take on the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Highlanders on Friday. The Highlanders are 14-4 overall but are coming off a 4-0 loss against the Delaware Blue Hens. The first serve is set for 2 p.m.
