The Mitchell College women’s tennis team closed its season with a home court loss on Sunday, falling 5-4 to Newbury College. The following information was provided by David Longolucco, sports information director at Mitchell College:
Mitchell started the match with a 2-0 lead, as Newbury (2-12 overall, 2-7 NECC) had only five players and was forced to forfeit points at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles. The Nighthawks, however, evened the match at 2-2 after sweeping the remaining doubles points. Newbury then won three of five singles matches to seal the overall team victory.
Kristen Conners (Riverside, R.I./East Providence) and Jennifer Swafford (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) defeated Mackenzie Flanagan (San Anselmo, Calif./San Domenico) and Amanda Resnick (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) by an 8-2 final at the top doubles spot. Alexandra Derderian (North Providence, R.I./North Providence) and Julie MacLeod (Buffalo, N.Y./Frontier) completed the doubles competition with an 8-3 victory over Marisa Haggett (Marlboro, Conn./Great Path Academy) and Jennifer Schmidt (Clarksburg, Mass./Drury) at the No. 2 position.
Swafford, Derderian and MacLeod each picked up critical points in the singles matches to give the Nighthawks the team victory. All three won in straight sets, with Swafford defeating Resnick 6-2, 6-0 at No. 2, Derderian beating Julie Embley (Lawrenceville, N.J./Allentown) 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3 and MacLeod besting Haggett 6-4, 6-0 at No. 4.
Mitchell’s singles win came at the No. 1 and 5 spots. Flanagan defeated Conners 6-1, 7-5 at the top spot to finish the season with an overall singles record of 9-3 (7-3 NECC). Schmidt also picked up her third conference win of the season by finals of 6-1, 6-1 over Olivia Iafrate (Waltham, Mass./Waltham).
Mitchell concludes the season with an overall record of 1-11 (0-10 NECC). Newbury will wrap up the season at Johnson & Wales University on Monday, October 17 at 3:30 p.m.
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