BOSTON, Mass.—Missing two of their top four singles players, an undermanned UMass Boston women's tennis team couldn't keep up with defending Little East Conference Champion UMass Dartmouth on Saturday.
THE BASICS
UMass Dartmouth 8, UMass Boston 0
(UMass Boston 5-4, Little East 4-3)
(UMass Dartmouth 7-4, Little East 5-2)
HOW IT HAPPENED
With every player in their lineup playing up at least one spot, if not two during singles, the Beacons couldn't keep up with their intra-state rivals.
Freshman Valeria Tueme (Easton, Mass.) was a bright spot in the match, as she made her collegiate singles debut. Tueme earned a first set tiebreaker win at sixth singles 7-6 (7-3), before the match was called due to rain.
UMass Dartmouth came out on fire in the match and easily jumped out to a 3-0 lead in doubles. In the closest of the three singles matches, UMass Dartmouth's Samantha Rollings and Kheyla Orival knocked off Kathleen Conroy (Quincy, Mass.) and Meghan Erickson (Hubbardston, Mass.) 8-3.
The Corsairs would quickly push their lead to out to 6-0 with wins at fourth, third and second singles.
After dropping the first set at number one singles, Conroy came back to take a 3-0 lead in the second set and went toe-to-toe in the second with the reigning LEC Rookie of the Year Jenna Lahaie. Lahaie eventually worked her way back into the set and earned a 6-1, 7-5 victory.
In fifth singles, Maria Benatuil (Caracas, Venezuela ) and Molina Oung played a marathon match, with Oung eventually earning a 6-4, 6-2 victory.
In the final match of the day, Tueme made the most of her collegiate debut in singles. She led for much of the set, but found herself trailing 6-5. Tueme held serve to force a tiebreaker and then knocked off Jillian Reichert 7-3 in the tiebreak that was filled with several delays due to the weather and score disputes.
BY THE NUMBERS
- UMass Dartmouth improved to 15-1 all-time against the Beacons and earned their fourteenth-straight win.
- Saturday's match was the first-ever Little East Conference "Game of the Season" for women's tennis.
- The Beacons hosted their "Breast Cancer Awareness" match on Saturday.
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will hope to have their full squad available on Thursday, when they travel to Curry College for a 3 p.m. start.
