The Tuesday evening matchup between the Houghton Highlander's and the Fredonia Blue Devils Women's Tennis Teams saw Fredonia pull ahead 8-1 in the end.
The Highlanders dropped three quick doubles matches, only securing eight games between the pairs. Fredonia dominated at the top of the lineup, but three of Houghton's players, Erin Haley, Alicia Cline, and Maddison Soth were able to push their matches to third set tie-breakers after being down one set. Haley's match was incredibly even at 4-6, 6-4, (7-10) and Cline lost hers at a close 3-6, 6-1, (4-10). Sophomore Maddison Soth secured her first singles victory as a Highlander with a 4-6, 6-1, (10-5) victory at No. 6 singles!
"There's a lot to learn from today." Says Head Coach Tonya McGraner "And we're getting ready to head into conference play so now is a good time to learn it. I think Fredonia exploited us at the net in doubles today. But the girls fought for singles. We had three girls fight to a tie-breaker after losing the first set, and that shows a lot of heart and grit. It's a shame we couldn't take all of them, but tie-breakers are tough that way. Maddi played an excellent set of matches today and I'm really excited to see her walk away with a victory against such a good team. She's certainly done the work to get here!"
The Highlanders will be back in action on Saturday with their first Empire 8 matchup of the season. Play against Utica begins at 1pm @ Houghton College.