The Houghton Women's Tennis team opened up their first weekend of play falling to Geneva College, 8-1 on Friday evening, and 9-0 to SUNY Brockport on Saturday. The lone winner for the Highlander's came from Arija Grant at second singles against Geneva. Despite dropping the first set, Grant would find her rhythm in the second set and come out victorious 1-6, 7-6 (5), 10-5. 

Throughout the weekend of play, several Highlander's would battle in tight matches, but could not seal the deal. Against Geneva, Arija Grant and Alexandria Leary would lose a tight contest 8-5 at the first flight, and Clancey Cockle and Zoe Zachery, fell 8-7 (2) in a second doubles tiebreaker. Zoe Zachery would also fall just short at fifth singles, 4-6, 6-3, 10-1. 

At Brockport, the Highlander's luck closing out matches did not go their way either. Clancey Cockle played an excellent match at third singles, but was edged out in the final set tiebreaker 2-6, 7-5, 10-5. Alexandria Leary would play a solid match at the second singles spot as well, falling 6-3, 6-4. 

"I am certainly pleased with the level of play this weekend despite the lopsided score lines," Head Coach Zach Shilvock said following the opening weekend of play. "I thought our ladies competed very well against Geneva, but we struggled closing out the opportunities we had. There is a lot to learn from our contest with Brockport, however I am encouraged to use these first matches to our benefit moving forward with training and our preparation." 

The ladies will get back into action next Saturday, September 9th  when they travel to Pennsylvania for the Grove City Invitational.