Women’s Tennis Ends Fall with Win Over Seton Hall

The falling leaves and dropping temperatures are just one of the
indications that the fall sports season is coming to a close. Before
winter approaches, though, the women’s tennis team was able to
squeeze two more competitions into its busy fall schedule.

In its final event of the season, the Lions beat the Pirates of Seton
Hall University last Friday, 6-1. Continuing a season-long trend,
the team captured the doubles point by sweeping all three
matches. Head Coach Rob Kresberg altered the pairings slightly
against the Pirates, but the result was similar to previous doubles
play.

Playing as the number one doubles seed, junior Shelly Mittal
teamed with sophomore Lucia Aniello and won 8-3 against their
Pirate opponents. The other two doubles matches were closer, but
first-year Miriam Rahali and senior Ilene Weintraub emerged
victorious, as did sophomore Melissa Nguyen and first-year Sarita
Konka. Both pairs won their matches 9-7.

After grabbing a 1-0 lead, the team embarked on singles play
looking to finish off the Pirates.

The Lions did just that as they took five of six singles matches.
Mittal, Rahali, Nguyen, Weintraub, and first-year Kristin Martinez all
won their respective singles matches. Rahali was particularly
impressive, winning in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0. Only first-year
Martinez was unable to post a victory, falling 6-3, 6-3 to Seton
Hall’s Nicole Cercone.

Kresberg was happy to conclude the season with such a victory,
though he noted it was not always as easy as it appeared.

“Some of the matches were closer then the score indicated. We
were down in some of the matches and came back. We were
down 5-0 in No. 2 doubles and 4-1 in No. 3 doubles, and we won
both close matches,” Kresberg said. “We were also down in a
number of singles [matches] and came away with wins.”

Two players who distinguished themselves, according to
Kresberg, were Mittal and Rahali. Mittal emerged over the course
of the season as the replacement for the departed Laila Shetty as
the team’s No. 1. In her singles victory against Seton Hall, she
won a close first set 7-6 before taking control and cruising to a 6-1
win in the second set.

“She lost a couple of close ones [earlier in the year],” Kresberg
said, “but played a very tough girl against Seton Hall, one of the top
players in the East. So the win for her at No. 1 was a very good
one.”

As for Rahali, she soundly defeated Seton Hall’s Kyli Lassalle.
Last season, Lassalle knocked off last year’s No. 1, Shetty, for
Columbia.

Also this weekend Junior Leena Krishnaswamy, Mittal, and
Nguyen traveled to Philadelphia to compete in the Omni Hotels ITA
Eastern Regionals at the University of Pennsylvania.

Krishnaswamy and Mittal fell in their singles matches to Lindy First
of George Washington University and Maaria Husain of Penn
State, respectively.

Despite the troubles in the singles division, the team had some
success in doubles play. Nguyen and Mittal beat a pairing from
Conneticut 8-2 before ultimately falling to a team from Old
Dominion, 8-1.

Members of the team will now engage in optional workouts until
official practice resumes on Feb. 1. Kresberg said he will
encourage all of his players to stay in shape by not only playing but
also by running and participating in the team’s strength and
conditioning program.