By Michael Purtell
“Literally one match can be the difference in qualifying or being eliminated.”
Plattsburgh State tennis coach Chris Waterbury knew before his team played a single point of SUNYAC tennis how important every match was for making the playoffs at the end of the season.
Now, the Cards stand 2-3 after a rigorous two weeks of conference games, and are neck and neck with Cortland as the bottom half of the tournament qualifiers.
LOOKING AHEAD
The regular season concludes with a matchup against VTSU Castleton Oct. 7. The match was rescheduled due to inclement weather.
The SUNYAC tournament will begin on the weekend of Oct. 17, with the seeding still to be decided by a final meeting between Cortland and Oneonta. Unlike last semester, the tournament will be played in the Fall semester.
“I’m going in with the idea that we’re tuning up for SUNYACs with the hopes of pulling off a massive upset,” Waterbury said. “We have to go in with that attitude.”
The Cardinals are most likely to end up facing conference juggernaut New Paltz in the first round of the tournament. The Hawks are undefeated this season, are the reigning conference champions and bounced the Cards from the tournament last season.
“To New Paltz’ credit, they are darn good, just flat out good,” Waterbury said.
In tennis, like in any sport, the Cardinals are going to need to play with urgency if they want a chance to take down the conference champs.
“Let’s use basketball as an example. If you’re playing a team that is hands down faster, quicker and stronger, the best tactic you can use is to shorten the game,” Waterbury said. “Thats the mentality, we play to our strengths and keep points short. The longer a point goes on for, the more chances we give them to create advantages.”
Waterbury said his goal for the tournament is to get a team full of young talent to play the best matches they can to prepare for future high pressure games.
ONEONTA
After two 1-6 losses to Cortland and Oswego, the Cardinals needed to close out their SUNYAC play with a strong win to secure the fourth and final spot in the SUNYAC tournament. Saturday, they did just that, conquering the Oneonta Red Dragons on the road 5-2.
The Cards landed the first punch, with all three doubles teams completing the sweep for the first point of the match. Junior duo Jacklin Mitchell and Ava Carey were the first team to finish with a 6-4 victory at the #1 doubles court. Mitchell and Carey are 5-3 in doubles games this season, with a conference record of 3-2. They exclusively have played in the #1 slot.
First-years Ava Perry and Carmen Marino took #2 doubles in a 7-6 tie breaker. The young pair moved to 4-4 on the season and 2-3 in conference play with the win, with all their games coming at the #2 doubles.
Senior Kristy Cantwell and First-year Abigail MacDougal rounded out the flawless doubles play with a 6-4 win at #3 doubles. The captain-newbie team moves to a team-best 6-1 record in doubles with a 4-1 record in conference matches. They’ve won their last four in a row.
In singles, Cantwell delivered a flawless game winning in two 6-0 sets. Mitchell took the point in #1 singles in two sets of 6-4. Plattsburgh secured the game-winning point when Marino cinched the #5 singles match with final scores of 6-3 and 6-4.
Perry was the last Card to find a victory in the match with a long contest, taking the match in the third set with scores of 6-4, 2-6 and 10-7.
The Red Dragons secured victories at #2 singles over Carey with scores of 0-6 and 3-6, and at #6 singles over Marena Tubo with scores of 4-7 and 3-5.
The results of singles move every athlete to a 4-4 overall record, with the exception of Perry, who sits at 3-5. Every athlete holds a conference record of 2-4, with the exception of Marena, who is 1-4 in SUNYAC singles.
