The women’s tennis team finished its fall season with a perfect 10–0 overall record and claimed its fifth straight Empire 8 Championship title Sunday afternoon in Rochester, N.Y.

The team beat Nazareth College 9–0 in the semifinal Saturday before shutting out second-seeded Stevens Institute of Technology 5–0 to claim the title. The Bombers are the first team in the history of the Empire 8 tournament to shut out every team. With the conference tournament win, they received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in the spring.

“Our overall goal is to improve each time and compete better,” Head Coach Bill Austin said. “As a whole, we did that.”

Heading into the Empire 8 Championship, the team rallied off great play at the New York state tournament the week before. Austin said the team had a lot of momentum going into the conference tournament, and after tweaking the doubles lineup and playing well in singles, it was no surprise that the team won every match in the conference tournament.  

Senior captain Devra Reiman finished the season 9–4 in singles play, including a season-ending six-game winning streak. In doubles play, she went an undefeated 12–0, including title victories at the Mary Hosking Invitational at William Smith College and the New York State Division III Women’s Tennis Championships at Cornell University. Reiman was also named the Empire 8 Player of the Week for her game in the New York State Championships.

“It was awesome to improve my dubs game,” Reiman said.

Fellow senior captain Sarah Hollis also had a strong finish in her last season, going 9–3 in singles play, including a five-game winning streak to end the season. In doubles play, she finished 11–0. She paired up with Reiman in all but one match this season. The doubles team won 88 games and only lost 29 this season in its 11-game win streak.

Freshman Cristina Nunez also had an outstanding season this year going 16–2 in singles play. She also finished 13–2 in doubles with junior Agata Kubik. Nunez was named the Empire 8 Championship tournament’s Most Valuable Player and was named the conference’s Player of the Week three times this season.  

“I wanted to have a good season, work really hard and play well this season,” Nunez said. “I did that.”

Nunez said it was thrilling to accomplish so much in her rookie season.

“Winning the Empire 8 was a goal for me this season, and this was my first time winning, which is really exciting,” Nunez said.

While this was Reiman’s last season with the team, she said she is still looking forward to the spring season.

“It’s definitely a little weird [to be done], but thankfully we won Empire 8,” Reiman said. “We have NCAAs in the spring, so it’s not over yet.”

With the NCAA tournament in sight, the Bombers will play in tournaments to stay in shape during the winter in preparation for the spring. The Blue and Gold have never made it to the second round of the tournament, but Austin said with the spring season ahead, they still have time to improve.

“The season is only half over,” Austin said.

The team also finished the fall season with a 41-game winning streak against Empire 8 teams and will look to continue that streak next season.

“The season went by really fast, but I am really looking forward to the spring and next year,” Nunez said.