The College's women's tennis team continued its streak of consecutive New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) wins this week by beating University of Rutgers-Newark, Ramapo College and William Paterson University.
The streak now stands at 109 straight wins as the Lions demolished each team with shutout victories of 9-0.
Sophomore Christina Contrafatto led the battle at first singles and first doubles, going undefeated in all three matches. Contrafatto remains unbeaten in singles play this year with a 6-0 mark.
Freshman Haley Kutner also went undefeated through all three matches, along with every other member of the team, but also remains unbeaten in her college career. Kutner now stands at 6-0 in singles and 5-0 in doubles.
The Lions' most dominant match took place against William Paterson. The College shut down the entire Pioneers' lineup, holding them to only five games while the Lions tallied 96.
The Lions also shut out the Pioneers in six matches and held them to one game in two matches.
In singles, juniors Kristen Turturiello and Ayumi Yamazaki and senior captain Jackie Gavornik and Kutner won their matches 6-0, 6-0. Yamazaki and Kutner teamed at second doubles, while Turturiello and freshman Lindsay Katzel partnered up in third doubles to hold their opponents to an 8-0 score.
"It was expected that we would get wins on all of those teams, but with pretty weak teams like that it is easy to lose focus and we all seemed to step it up and stay focused the entire time throughout all the matches," Turturiello said. "They are weak teams, but you still have to just think you have to get every point just as if you were playing against a really hard team."
According to Turturiello, the team should have no trouble with the rest of their NJAC schedule, as more 9-0 wins are predicted. Excitement rises amongst the Lions, though, as Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Regionals approach.
"The women are taking care of business because it isn't easy being the favorite in the NJAC," head coach Scott Dicheck said. "They have done what was expected and they are all focused when it comes to match time."
Doubles teams of Contrafatto and Gavornik along with Turturiello and Kutner should both see stellar time in the regionals. Each player should also be in the singles tournament.
Yamazaki also qualified for the tournament, but will not be able to attend due to scheduling conflicts.
The men's team participated in the Swarthmore College Invitational Tournament this past weekend. Like the Lions' Fall Kickoff Tournament, the College went through individual matches over the course of the weekend.
On the first day of the tournament, sophomore Mike Klimchak, and freshmen Will Daly and Matt Hiznay advanced to the singles finals by going 2-0 in their matches that day.
"It was a great experience, especially (going into the tournament) as a freshman and getting the chance to play a serious college match," Daly said. "The team is great. There is a lot of opportunity for the freshmen to get so much better because of how good the upperclassmen are, so it is basically a learning experience for us all this year."
Klimchak and freshman Roger Mosteller won both of their doubles matches on the first day of the tournament, while Daly and senior Justin Cook won one out of the two matches to advance to the doubles finals in their flight.
Unfortunately, each singles player and doubles team surrendered their final match to the opponent.
"I was a little disappointed with the way I played in the singles final," Daly said. "I thought I could have done a bit better, but I was just happy to even play for the team."
"It was a good competitive tournament, and the fact that it came out so even was very encouraging," Dicheck said. "We also see things we need to work on, but we are confident in the group we have and in the motivation of all the individual players."
The women's next NJAC match will take place at Richard Stockton College today. The Lions will then travel to Geneva, N.Y. for the ITA Regionals on Sept. 23-25. The men's team will wait to attend the ITA Regionals until Sept. 30-Oct. 2 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
