By Chelsea Cabral, Staff Writer
The UMass Dartmouth women’s tennis team travelled to Boston on Saturday, October 8 to face the UMass Boston Beacons in the Little East Conference Match of the season, and added another win to their line of victories.
Hosted at Boston High School’s Tennis Courts, the Corsairs came out on fire and started the match with three pairs, easily jumping out in a 3-0 lead in doubles, while the Beacons were only able to claim four match points in doubles play.
Doubles began with Senior Jillian Reichert and sophomore Jenna Lahaie prevailing at 8-1 against Beacons Kelsey Shea and Vicky Woytowicz. Junior Mollie McCaffrey and first year Corsair, Jaime Fastino shut out their Beacon counterparts, taking an impressive 8-0 win to open. This was followed by the closest of the three doubles matches, with juniors Samantha Rollings and Kheyla Orival knocking off Beacons Kathleen Conroy and Meghan Erickson in an 8-3 sweep.
Both Fastino and McCaffrey continue to shine out as a top doubles threat, winning their last four matches together. Fastino’s matches paired with McCaffrey have formed a 6-4 record so far, the most wins in doubles all season.
The Corsairs continued with their remarkable stride in the singles matches, gaining a 6-0 victory in second, third and fourth singles. The first singles match saw reigning LEC Rookie of the Year, sophomore Corsair
Jenna Lahaie, quickly shut out Conroy in the first set 6-1. Conroy came back to take a 3-0 lead in the second set and went head-to-head with Lahaie, who eventually worked her way back in and gaining a 7-5 victory.
Samantha Rollings turned in a quick and easy two sets winning 6-1, and 6-0 with first year Fastino following suit winning 6-2, 6-0. Mollie McCaffrey faced off with Katie Gauthier, winning with a close 6-4 in the first set and making a drastic turn around and shutting out her opponent with 6-0 in the second set.
In the fifth singles match, junior year Corsair Molina Oung earned a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Beacon Maria Benatuil fortifying her lead in singles competition with a 9-1 record on the fall with just one loss and one no decision. The final singles match of the day saw first year Corsair Melanie Wong making her singles debut against Valeria Tueme and was in the midst of a first-set tiebreak before the competition was called due to rain.
The success of the Corsairs against UMass Boston on Saturday follows a two match win streak after defeating Worcester State on Tuesday and Eastern Nazarene on Thursday. The Corsairs are led by the 2015 LEC Rookie of the Year, Jenna Lahaie who plays top flight singles and has posted a 5-4 record playing the opponents top singles players this season.
With only two matches left in the regular season, the Corsairs will continue their winning streak on Thursday, October 13 at 3 p.m. as they face off against Suffolk’s women’s tennis team at home.