April 20, 2007
Final Stats
The Siena women's tennis team was pushed to the edge in its quarterfinal match with Fairfield Friday in the MAAC Quarterfinals, but the defending MAAC Champions had just enough to out-last the upstart Stags 4-3 at the USTA Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.
"It's all about survival at this stage," head coach Tim O'Brien said. "We knew they had some injured players coming back and that this would be a difficult match. I'm happy with the way we responded and with the victory."
Siena relied heavily on its local tandem at the top of the rotation. Sophomore standout Sarah Mayer (Latham/Shaker) earned a three-set win over Paulina Rys at top singles, surviving a brief hiccup in a 6-2 setback in the second set. Senior Taylor Barvoets (Loudonville/Holy Names), who finished the season undefeated at #2 singles, easily disposed of Lauren Bonanno 6-2 and 6-1 at second singles.
The Saints also picked up a point at #4 singles, where Julia Lebedev stayed red hot with a 6-3 and 6-0 win over Alexis Accomando. The win was especially impressive, considering Accomando was dropping from #3 singles to make room for Dana Postupack, who returned to the Stags rotation to post a 6-2 and 6-2 win over Siena's Karina Davis.
Fairfield also won at #5 and #6 singles. Gabriella Davila held on for a 7-6, 2-6 and 11-9 victory over Arti Iyer in the day's most entertaining match at #5 singles.
The hotly contested doubles point proved to be the difference. After the Stags won 8-5 at top doubles, Barvoets and Sugam Langer teamed for an 8-2 win at #2 doubles. Iyer and Lebedev's 8-4 win over Bonanno and Davila proved to be the deciding contest of the match.
#3 Siena (9-7) advances to play #2 Niagara at 11:30 a.m. in tomorrow's MAAC semifinal match. The Purple Eagles defeated the Saints 4-3 in Lewiston last weekend.
