The College's men's and women's tennis teams took home plenty of momentum going into Spring Break.
They dominated the courts on March 4 to capture two shutout wins against Ithaca College.
The 9-0 win pushed the women to a 9-0 record while dropping Ithaca to 7-6. The men improved to 3-1 on the year after the 7-0 win, while Ithaca now stands at 1-6 with the loss.
"Our team this year has been one of the best teams I have been on because everybody wants to win no matter what it takes," freshman Michael Klimchak said. "It seems like we are all true competitors."
From top to bottom, each player had complete control of their opponents. The Lions ran away with all of their doubles matches, the closest score being 8-3.
"Our main focus for the match was to have a strong doubles showing because we're always working on just trying to get better and we don't necessarily worry about where a team may stand when we face them," head coach Scott Dicheck said. "I'm really happy with the results of both teams because we played well which is promising for the bigger matches that we have coming up."
"We just wanted to play smart, use what we learned in practice and not make the same mistakes that we have in the past," sophomore third doubles player Karen Shih said.
In women's first singles play, freshman Christina Contrafatto defeated junior Narguess Arjomand 6-1, 6-1. Sophomore Kristen Turturiello then beat sophomore Melissa Walsh 6-1, 6-0 in second singles.
In third and fourth singles, sophomore Ayumi Yamazaki and senior Katie D'Amato both clobbered their opponents, sophomore Erin Chapman and freshman Elizabeth Cohen, 6-0, 6-0.
In fifth singles, sophomore Jackie Pryzbylkowski defeated junior Katherine Dempsey 6-4, 6-1. Freshman Ariel Donohue sealed the Lions' final victory by beating the Bombers' sophomore Megan Keenan 6-1, 6-3.
"Every match counts as to whether or not we make it to nationals again this year," Shih said. "I think if we keep playing smart we can definitely do it again."
In men's singles play, the team was missing sophomore Ryan Carty, who usually plays first singles and doubles, due to scheduling conflicts. The team, however, made up for his absence and took command over Ithaca.
In first singles, junior co-captain Justin Cook stepped up and rallied to defeat junior Chris Ciolino 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. In second singles, Klimchak beat sophomore Colin Flynn 6-0, 6-1.
"I try to look at every match in the same way because you never know who you are going to play," Klimchak said. "Some teams could have a losing record but the person that you are playing against could be a good match-up for you so we go in wanting to win no matter who the opponent is."
Freshman Eric Ferriere continued the Lions' success at third singles to defeat the Bombers' sophomore Joe Young 6-0, 6-2. At fourth singles, sophomore Corey Ball trounced his opponent, freshman Jeff Buffum 6-0, 6-1.
In fifth singles play, freshman Donald "Sonnie" Pollosco obtained the victory by defeating senior Darren Hochberg 6-4, 6-1. Rounding out the competition in sixth singles was senior Ken Tsui, who crushed sophomore Ty Kennedy 6-0, 6-0.
"If we play like we did the first half of the season, we will do extremely well and hopefully make it to regionals," Klimchak said. "As long as we can keep up our intensity and drive to win and play well against the top teams, then we can't ask anything more."
