Women’s tennis dominates at St. Lawrence Invitational with new coach
The Geneseo women’s tennis team welcomed new head coach Alan Heverly at the start of this season. Previously, Heverly was an assistant tennis coach at Lehigh University, an NCAA Division I college in Pennsylvania. Following his time at Lehigh, Heverly became the head coach of both the men’s and women’s teams at Moravian University (Division III). With numerous accolades under his belt, Heverly seems like a great fit at Geneseo, and will hopefully continue his successes with the Knights.
This season, the women’s tennis team hopes to ride off of their successes from last year—with a 9-8 overall record and a 5-2 conference record for the 2021-2022 season, Geneseo is off to a slower start this year, but there is plenty of time remaining in their season to finish strong. As of Sept. 20, junior Alex Galle leads the Geneseo singles in victories with an impressive 4-1 record, with a multitude of others at 3-0.
This past weekend, the team traveled to Canton, NY for a two-day invitational at St. Lawrence. On Saturday, Galle fought hard for two wins in the “A” flight. Galle’s wins were against St. Lawrence (8-3) and RIT (8-6). Further along in the tournament, seniors Meghan Heeney and Abigail Rockwood each earned a singles victory against RIT. Heeney prevailed in a tiebreaker and came out ahead 8-7 as Rockwood dominated with an 8-2 win.
These strong performances from Geneseo continued into Sunday with the doubles matches. Rockwood had picked up another win, but not without the help of her doubles partner, sophomore Julia Paolino. They defeated a strong RIT pair by a score of 8-7 in the “A” flight. Just as Galle had emerged victorious in the singles matches, a doubles victory became hers to claim with the help of senior Kylie Seiler. Together, they buried RIT 8-1 and tallied another win for Geneseo, adding to an already impressive tournament performance as a team.
Geneseo women’s tennis is filled with potential for years to come, thanks to a solid group of underclassmen, but is also aided by the leadership and experience of several senior team members. With only two home matches left for the remainder of the season, the struggles of playing on the road will hopefully be overcome and lead to many victories. The remaining tournaments consist of mostly conference play, with their closest upcoming competition being the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Northeast championship on Sept. 23, followed by a series of SUNYAC matches. The women’s tennis team looks forward to a promising rest of their season.