Box Score The Houghton Women's Tennis Team came out victorious in a must win conference match against St. John Fisher University with a 5-4 thrilling match ending Saturday afternoon. The victory puts the Highlanders at 7-5 on the year and 5-2 in the Empire 8 clinching the third seed for the conference tournament.
The match started off very even with a split of the first and second doubles pairings.
Chloe Esch and
Elise Swanson would ease into an 8-1 victory on court one, but
Alexandria Leary and Marilynn Abmorski could not outlast the tough second flight falling 8-2.
Arija Grant and
Clancey Cockle were up 2-1 before a Fisher player was injured and forced to retire on court three. The unfortunate break would give Houghton a 2-1 lead after doubles.
Heading into singles play, the lady Highlander's would need three victories to clinch the match, and they would get just that. Seniors
Elise Swanson and
Chloe Esch gave the team life with two huge wins at the first two positions. Swanson and Esch would come out victorious with identical 6-3, 6-2 scorelines at first and second respectively. Courts three and four would see some of the tightest matches of the afternoon both going Fisher's way. Amborski would fall just barely 4-6, 7-5, 4-6 at three, and Leary would lose a nail biter 2-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7) at the fourth spot.
Clancey Cockle would fall at the fifth spot 6-4, 6-4 in a close affair which would leave the match all tied up at 4-4 entering the sixth singles match. Freshman
Arija Grant would be the hero of the afternoon prevailing 6-3, 6-2 to clinch the match win and ultimately a post season birth for the Highlanders!
"What a gutsy performance, and a total team effort," Coach
Zach Shilvock said post match. "The whole team played lights out today, and I loved the heart and fight I saw out of each and every player. Without question, I have to highlight our Senior Captain's Elise and Chloe who have led this team all season long on and off the court. I challenged them this week and they lived up to it with 3 huge points for us today. We have achieved our goal of making the conference tournament, and now we look forward to post season play next weekend!"
The Highlander's will enjoy this weekend and will get back into action next Friday where they will take on the #2 seed in the tournament.
