Box Score (PDF)
 
ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's tennis returned to the courts at Glazer Arena inside the Athletics & Events Center for a pivotal Liberty League match against RIT. The match promised to have big potential postseason implications with both teams entering the day battling for positioning on the periphery of postseason qualification. Unfortunately, a fast start by the visiting Tigers paved the way for the end result, as the Bombers dropped their third straight match to fall to 3-7 on the year and 1-5 in Liberty League action.
 
It was another challenging start for the Bombers in the doubles session, which ultimately made the difference in Thursday's contest. IC fell behind early in all three tandems bouts and were never really able to recover. The second-doubles grouping of sophomore Brianna Ruback and junior Taylor Ginestro came up shy in an 8-4 decision against Claire Casalnova and Kristen Zablonski. Shortly after, the first-singles grouping of juniors Kathryn Shaffer and Caroline Dunn fell in an 8-3 decision to Amelia Ying and Shayna Ginster. The two defeats pushed Ithaca into an early 2-0 hole.
 
The Bombers showed some fight in the third-doubles matchup, nearly escaping the session with a critical team point. Trailing the matchup 7-4, freshman Sara Steinberg and sophomore Parley Hannan stayed alive with a big service break of the Tigers' grouping of Annie Steinbrink and Maddy Price. With Steinberg on serve, IC's duo jumped out to a 40-0 lead in the next service game, but the Tigers duo rallied all the way back with five straight points to take the game and the matchup 8-5.
 
With little room for error the rest of the way, the Bombers used that sense of urgency to get off to a strong start during the singles session. Dunn got IC's comeback bid started with one of her most impressive performances of the season. She used her power forehand and played high-percentage tennis to push Casalnova around the court in a dominant effort. Dunn took the matchup 6-1, 6-2. Briefly, Ithaca had closed the deficit to 3-1 in the team score.
 
The Tigers responded to Dunn's third-singles win with one of their own in the second-singles bout between Shaffer and former IC player Shayna Ginster. Although Shaffer hung tough despite not playing at 100-percent health, Ginster was able to consistently keep rallies alive in a 6-1, 6-0 final to re-up the visitors lead to 4-1. Ginster's win gave Ithaca no margin for error, needing to sweep the final four bouts of the evening.
 
Ithaca stayed alive in the match for a time, as Ruback scored a huge result at first-singles. Matching up against RIT's hard striking Amelia Ying, IC's sophomore handled the pace well and used her agility to ease past the Tigers' hard hitter for a comfortable win. She took the matchup 6-2, 6-3, closing the IC deficit back to just two points at 4-2.
 
Unfortunately, the deficit was too much to bridge in the end, as RIT clinched the match in the fourth-singles bout between Kristen Zablonski and IC's Ginestro. The matchup was exciting during the first set, as Ginestro raced out to an early 4-1 lead; however, Zablonski battled back to force a tiebreak, which she ultimately won to take the critical opening set. Ginestro was unable to recover from the RIT netter's big momentum swinging win, as Zablonski pulled away in the second set for a 6-2 win to clinch the match in favor of the visitors.
 
Although the result of the match was already decided, freshman Sara Steinberg turned in an excellent effort to pick up her first Liberty League singles win of the year in her matchup against RIT's Steinbrink in the fifth-singles matchup. Using strong forehand and excellent court coverage, Steinberg took control of matters fairly early and never let up in pushing past RIT's player for an impressive 6-2, 6-2 victory to make the team score 5-3.
 
Hannan rounded out the day's action for the Bombers. She battled hard in her sixth-singles matchup against RIT's Julia Smolowitz, but ultimately was not able to score the result in a 6-4, 6-2 defeat.
 
Doubles
1. Amelia Ying/Shayna Ginster (RIT) def. Kathryn Shaffer/Caroline Dunn (ITHACA) | 8-3
2. Claire Casalnova/Kristen Zablonski (RIT) def. Brianna Ruback/Taylor Ginestro (ITHACA) | 8-4
3. Annie Steinbrink/Maddy Price (RIT) def. Sara Steinberg/Parley Hannan (ITHACA) | 8-5
Singles
1. Brianna Ruback (ITHACA) def. Amelia Ying (RIT) | 6-2, 6-3
2. Shayna Ginster (RIT) def. Kathryn Shaffer (ITHACA) | 6-1, 6-0
3. Caroline Dunn (ITHACA) def. Claire Casalnova (RIT) | 6-1, 6-2
4. Kristen Zablonski (RIT) def. Taylor Ginestro (ITHACA) | 7-6 (7-0), 6-2
5. Sara Steinberg (ITHACA) def. Annie Steinbrink (RIT) | 6-2, 6-2
6. Julia Smolowitz (RIT) def. Parley Hannan (ITHACA) | 6-4, 6-2
 
The Bombers return to action this Saturday, April 7, when they travel to face TCNJ in a non-league battle at the Mercer County Tennis Center in West Windsor, N.J. Start time for the women's match is 11:45 a.m., while the men will also take on TCNJ with start expected for around 3:00 p.m.