ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The Western Connecticut State University women's tennis squad dropped a hard-fought non-conference road match to Bard College, 5-2, on Friday afternoon at the Stevenson Athletic Center.
WestConn opened strong, taking the doubles point behind wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots. Junior Erickah Tertulien (Norwalk, Conn.) and junior Keira Hammond (Carmel, N.Y.) rallied from a set down to edge Bard's Lisa Kyrtoka and Lola Greene, 7-5, at No. 2, while junior Caroline Illescas (Danbury, Conn.) and freshman Giselle Solorzano (Danbury, Conn.) held off Laura Kurbanova and Irene Won by the same 7-5 score at the No. 3 slot. WestConn's No. 1 pairing of junior Kate Robinson (Brookfield, Conn.) and sophomore Eilynn Pierre (Queens Village, N.Y.) fell 6-1 to Bard's Jesse Radzik and Ava Rizzo.
Bard turned the tide in singles play, winning five of the six matches. Tertulien delivered WestConn's lone singles point, knocking off Kyrtoka 6-1, 7-5 at the top spot. But Bard swept the rest: Radzik topped Pierre 6-1, 6-4 at the No. 2 hole, Greene downed Robinson 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3, Won handled junior Elsie Sabol (Pleasantville, N.Y.) 6-2, 6-3 at No. 4, Rizzo defeated Hammond 6-1, 6-1 at No. 5, and Kurbanova outlasted Illescas 7-5, 6-4 in a tight No. 6 battle.
"Unfortunately, despite winning the doubles point for the first time this season, we came out flat in singles and we couldn't recover. We can't afford to drop our level, especially with conference play coming up, stated Wolves head coach Shawn Stillman following the match.
The loss dropped WestConn to 1-4 on the season, while Bard improved to 1-2. The Wolves will look to rebound when they host the University of Southern Maine in a Little East Conference tilt tomorrow at 1 p.m.
