Newark, N.J. – The Seton Hall women’s tennis team fell short against Marquette, 4-1, on the last home match of the season on Friday afternoon. It was the first and last time the team played at the Campus Courts at Ivy Hill Park this season, and the last time ever for seniors Luize Strike and Katie Kim, who were both honored.
The doubles matches were somewhat of a foresight as to how the afternoon would go for the Hall. Although sophomores Melody Taal and Michal Matson seized victory in their number three doubles match, the Pirates were outdone in competitive first and second doubles matches, with the before-mentioned Strike and Kim coming up short on separate doubles teams.
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In singles, Strike and Kim played down to the very last point in what were tightly contested matches. Strike pushed Marquette’s Paula Tormos Sanchez to three sets in No. 1 singles, but, ultimately fell, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Kim, meanwhile, lost a tightly contested second set in the fifth round of tiebreakers and dropped the No. 5 singles match.
Taal got the Pirates on the board with a 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Marquette's Fleur Eggink, the reigning Big East Women’s Tennis Athlete of the Week, at the No. 3 singles position.
With two singles points still hanging in the balance, the Golden Eagles’ three-point cushion was too far for Seton Hall to rally a comeback. As a result, the Hall suffered a defeat that was, in some ways, not indicative of how close most of the games were.
Despite the setback, the match is still one of many in an on-going learning process under new head coach Kevin McGlynn.
“In their doubles, the partnerships are working to play as well as they can together and in singles, individually within their game always continuing to progress,” McGlynn said.
The Campus Courts at Ivy Hill Park was an unusual setting for the Pirates, who played all their previous home matches at Centercourt Sports in Florham Park, N.J. This made for the first outdoor home match for Seton Hall, with a sudden spike in temperature creating a difficult challenge.
“We haven’t played in this type of heat all year, even when we traveled to California for a match, the weather was fairly cool,” McGlynn said. “Today is one experience and I think tomorrow against Villanova will be a tougher test in bouncing right back. When we travel to South Carolina for Big East Tournament play it will also be a challenge, but, that’s where conditioning comes into play, along with prepping and hydration.”
Up next for the team is that quick turnover, as the Pirates will travel to Philadelphia, Pa. to face off against Villanova on Saturday, April 14. The match is scheduled to start at 3 p.m.
Evando Thompson can be reached at evando.thomspon@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @Thompsev.
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