Without a win in over two months, the Stony Brook women’s tennis team snapped its eight-game losing streak behind its strongest outing of the year.
The Seawolves (3-13, 1-3 CAA) defeated the Division II Queens College Knights (12-4, 5-0 East Coast) at University Court 6-1 on Saturday afternoon. Stony Brook owned the court in both singles and doubles, dropping only two matches en route to a 6-1 win.
The day opened up with doubles play as Mia Palladino and Elena Lobo-Corral defeated Maja Makal and Saga Berggren 6-3 in first doubles. The duo earned their first victory in doubles this season after five straight losses. The Knights answered right back in second doubles as Apolline Lamy and Eva Rivoal swept Debby Mastrodima and Sara Medved 6-0.
With the doubles point hung in the balance, the tiebreaker was third doubles between Cornelia Bruu-Syversen and Dasha Perfiliev and Ana Tarbujaru and Kyra Bergmann. Bruu-Syversen and Perfiliev took the doubles point for Stony Brook in a competitive match with a 7-5 victory.
Head coach Thiago Dualiby was proud of the double’s performance today despite the lack of continuity from the doubles tandems.
“Today we had a couple of pairs that we haven’t seen in quite a few matches,” Dualiby said in a postgame interview with The Statesman. “…It showed a little bit, but they found a way and competed really hard.”
Momentum stayed in the Seawolves’ favor, as they won all but one point in singles. In the first singles, Palladino came out on top in a competitive first set against Makal, winning 7-6. In the second set, Palladino took over with a 6-0 sweep to win the singles point for Stony Brook.
Lobo-Corral picked up where her double partner left off in second singles. With a 6-4 victory in both the first and second set against Caroline Hany-Fawzy, the Seawolves went up 3-0 against the Knights.
Queens College got back in arm’s reach in third singles, as Perfiliev struggled and lost against Lamy 6-2 in the first set and 6-1 in the second.
Stony Brook rebounded in the final two matches, as Bruu-Syversen clinched the victory for the Seawolves in fourth singles. She won the fourth point of the day with a 6-0 victory in the first set and a 6-4 victory in the second over Berggren. The remaining single matches continued despite Stony Brook locking up the win.
Medved defeated Kayla Taszymowicz in fifth singles 6-2 and 6-3 to earn the Seawolves fifth point of the day.
Mastrodima faced off against Bergmann in the sixth and final singles match of the day. In the first set, Mastrodima came out strong, winning 6-4. Although victory was out of reach for the Knights, Bergmann kept it competitive, defeating Mastrodima with a 7-5 victory in the second set. With one set apiece, both women went to a 10-point tiebreaker, with Mastrodima easily winning 10-4 against Bergmann for a Stony Brook 6-1 overall victory.
Dualiby sang his praises for the team postgame on their ability to overcome adversity.
“I wanted tough matches for them,” Dualiby said. “I think going through adversity is one of the best teachers. They had to go through some struggles there, and they came out and played great tennis when challenged.”
With the regular season concluded, Dualiby has eyes set on the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) postseason tournament.
“Even if we lost the match today, it wouldn’t affect my postgame speech,” Dualiby said. “I think we would still be motivated to go there if we competed the way we competed today.”
With the regular season being over, the Seawolves will venture back on the road to North Carolina for the CAA Women’s Tennis Tournament. Stony Brook will face the sixth-seeded University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) Seahawks. UNCW is 12-8 overall and 3-4 in conference play this year after beating Campbell 4-3 on Saturday. Opening serve will be on April 25th at 2 p.m.
