The women’s tennis team remained undefeated this season with a 9–0 win in its home opener against Alfred University at the Ithaca College Tennis Courts.
The victory extended the Bombers’ dual match win streak to 38 consecutive matches and was the South Hill squad’s third straight shutout in Empire 8 play.
In singles competition, senior Melissa Nunez played her first career match at second singles, after moving up in the lineup due to an injury to senior Melanie Cohen, defeating Alfred senior Autumn McLain in three sets 2–6, 6–1 and 10–7. Sophomore Cristina Nunez won at first singles, 6-1, 6-1, against Alfred junior Griffin Currie. The Bombers finished their sweep of the singles competition with freshman Becky Guzzo defeated Alfred sophomore Melissa Boyer 6-1, 6-2, junior Kelsey Harness over Alfred junior Shannon Tovey 6-1, 6-2, sophomore Allison Young downing Alfred sophomore Rebecca Switzer 6-0, 6-0 and sophomore Laurel Salladay beating Alfred sophomore Devyn DeVantier 6-0, 6-1.
In doubles play, the Bombers outscored the Saxons 24–1. Melissa and Cristina Nunez defeated Currie and McLain 8–0, junior Becky Campbell paired with Guzzo to top Boyer and Tovey 8–0 and the team of Salladay and Young beat DeVantier and Switzer 8–1.
Head Coach Bill Austin said the team is using each match as an opportunity to improve.
“We’re getting a little bit more match tough each time we take the court,” Austin said. “We’re taking away things like, ‘OK, we need to work on this or this looks good,’ just the little things like that for the upcoming matches.”
In this match the Bombers worked on playing with more pace, Cristina Nunez said.
“Today we were working on trying to be more aggressive,” Cristina said. “We tried to put balls away faster. We worked on it a lot in practice … that’s like all we did yesterday.”
Austin said he’s optimistic about the success he has seen so far this season.
“We’ve got some pretty good talent on this team,” Austin said. “We’ve been working hard.”
The Blue and Gold return to the court at 4 p.m. Thursday against SUNY–Cortland in Cortland, N.Y.
