Box Score (PDF)
ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's tennis team stretched its spring winning-streak to three straight matches on Friday afternoon, scoring a 6-3 victory over SUNY New Paltz on the indoor courts at Glazer Arena. The victory improves IC's record to 13-3 on the season.
The victory was a notable one for the Bombers, as it was the first time since the 2009-10 season that they have bested the Hawks in a dual meet, snapping a five-match losing streak to its downstate rival. IC took two-of-three doubles matchups and four-of-six singles tilts in the victory.
The Bombers got off to a strong start in the doubles portion of play, taking two of the three flights to gain the leg-up heading into singles. All three flights ended with the same 8-2 score line.
Sticking with the second-doubles tandem of freshman
Brianna Ruback and senior
Jodi Grosberg, IC captured the first point of the match in the middle flight. The IC duo played high-percentage tennis in jumping out to a comfortable margin, coasting to the 8-2 win. The triumph improved Ruback and Grosberg to 2-0 as a partnership this spring.
Although New Paltz leveled the match almost simultaneously with an 8-2 win over the sophomore pairing of
Taylor Ginestro and
Hannah Kasoff, it was the Bombers who took the rubber-match in the top-flight. IC's top tandem of senior
Haley Kusak and sophomore
Caroline Dunn improved to 14-5 as a pairing this season with an 8-2 triumph over New Paltz's Brittany Grandville and Carol Tyson.
The Bombers opened the singles portion of the match with another decisive victory in the sixth flight. Freshman
Jane Alkhazov dropped just a single game in besting the Hawks' Jessica Reich in a 6-1, 6-0 straight-sets win. The victory improved Alkhazov to 4-3 in the sixth flight of duels this season, while it brought her record to 7-4 overall on the year.
Ithaca continued to roll in the Top-2 flights to clinch the match. Kusak moved to 19-2 in singles on the year with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Ammirati in the first flight to stretch IC's lead to 4-1 in the match. With the victory, she's currently on pace to post the best winning-percentage for a single-season in program history. Ruback sealed the match shortly thereafter, scoring a 6-1, 6-0 win over Grandville in the second flight to push her record to 17-3 on the year.
Although the Hawks scored victories in the third and fourth flights, Ginestro helped the Bombers finish off the match on a high note with a three-set victory in the fifth flight. She took the opening set by a comfortable 6-2 margin, but dropped the second set to New Paltz's Lindsay Haley 4-6. The match went to a third-set super-breaker, with Ginestro jumping out to a 6-0 advantage en route to a 10-6 win in the decisive set.
Ithaca returns to action on Tuesday, April 4, when it welcomes University of Rochester to South Hill for a 4:30 p.m. match.
