Tennis team finishes second in HVWAC conference tourney

by Allison Grande

Thursday November 29, 2007

In the final three matches of the season, Gryphon Tennis showed that they are true conference contenders.
On Oct. 18, the team played their final conference match of the season against St. Joseph’s-Brooklyn. With their two top players not able to attend the match and two of their other players falling ill during their matches, it was time for the other seven members of the team to step up.
After dropping three of their first four singles matches, the team had to win four of their final five for the victory. Sophomore Carlie Bentley and junior Alex Pauline came through with clutch victories in their singles matches. After dropping the first double match, Sarah Lawrence needed victories in the final two matches.
Bentley and sophomore Danielle Saporta fell behind their opponents in the #1 doubles match but battled back to take an 8-6 match victory.
In the final match of the night, sophomore Sofia Voltin and first year Tatiana Trofimchuck started strong, but St. Joseph’s battled back to tie the game at seven and force a tiebreaker. The SLC duo took the match 7-1 to help SLC to a thrilling eighth victory of the season.
“You guys totally pulled through, and I’m so proud of all of you,” Head Coach Vanessa Chu said to her team after the game. “I don’t think you could have stressed [Assistant Coach] Dan [Bretl] and I out anymore than today, but it ended happily.”
A week later, the team was back on the court for their final regular season match against Yeshiva College. Playing well after 10 p.m. under a full moon, SLC easily took the victory over Yeshiva 7-2. Trofimchuck, who the previous week had been named Rookie of the Week by the Hudson Valley Women Athletic Conference (HVWAC), won her team-leading tenth singles match of the season.
The victory gave the Gryphons a 9-3 overall record and 5-1 conference record, good for a second place finish for the regular season heading into the Conference Tournament on a cold and windy Sunday afternoon at the National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens.
Seeded second in the Tournament behind only Cooper Union, SLC’s only conference loss of the season, the Gryphons dominated.
Individually, Bentley came away with the Championship of the #3 singles bracket, Trofimchuck won the #4 singles bracket, and Bentley and Saporta captured the #2 doubles bracket.
Sarah Lawrence took second place in the tournament overall to conclude an extremel successful season.
“We had an amazing season, and I am really sad that it’s over,” sophomore and co-captain Emily Zemba said.
Even though this season is over, the team, which graduates only one senior, has high hopes for another impressive showing next year.
“I’m very proud of our team,” co-captain Saporta said. “We had a great season, and it is clear that we all improved and that we came together as a group. We all got along well and had fun together.”