Mitchell Falls Short Against Newbury

Mitchell College couldn't quite get past Newbury College on Thursday, losing a 5-4 women's tennis match. The victory was the first of the season for Newbury's team. The following information was provided by Lindsay Graham, sports information director at Newbury College:

Junior Alexandra Derderian (North Providence, R.I.) and classmate Julie MacLeod (Buffalo, N.Y.) set the tone for the day by shutting out Julie Embley (Lawrenceville, N.J.) and Jaimee Topkin (New London, Conn.) in second doubles. It was not long after when senior Kristen Conners (Riverside, R.I.) and junior Jennifer Swafford (Merrimack, N.H.) followed suit. The first singles duo all season held off sophomore Mackenzie Flanagan (San Anselmo, Calif.) and senior Amanda Resnick (Ridgewood, N.J.), 8-1.

The momentum carried over into second singles with five scintillating matches. Coming of a third singles victory against Lesley on Tuesday, Derderian held off Embley in third singles (6-1, 6-0) while MacLeod disposed of Topkin once again in fourth singles, 6-1, 6-0. Swafford sealed the deal for the Nighthawks defeating Resnick in second singles, 6-0, 6-2.

Despite the loss, Mitchell’s Jennifer Schmidt (Clarksburg, Mass.) overcame a comeback from Newbury sophomore Olivia Iafrate (Waltham, Mass.) to claim fifth singles in three sets. After losing the first set, 6-4, Iafrate answered, winning the second set 6-2 before Schmidt won the third set tie-breaker, 10-4. But the highlight of the night came from Conners.

Battling a tough opponent, Flanagan, in first singles, Connors was not going to go down easy. After losing the first set, 6-0, the Rhode Island native was resilient and almost came close to forcing a deciding game three before Flanagan claimed the 7-6 victory in set two following an eight point tie-break.

With the win, Newbury improves to 1-8 on the season and 1-4 in the conference while Mitchell fall to 1-5 and 1-4 in the NECC. The Nighthawks return to the courts tomorrow afternoon when they host non-conference UMass-Dartmouth at 3:30 while the Mariners will host Lesley University in New London, Conn. at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday.