Clutch points and strong doubles play was the separator this afternoon as the Fire downed Division I opponent Colgate University, sticking together and outlasting the Raiders 5-2 and advancing to 7-2 on the season and dropping Colgate to 7-7.
Doubles was full of excitement as the Fire had to come back after the third flight fell to Colgate. In that flight, Eliza Podlas and Avery Isaac overpowered the Fire's
Neleah Neiberline and
Maria Martinez, winning 6–2. Next to finish was the second flight as Southeastern's
Martina Picardi and
Simone Simas outlasted Carina Cristobal and Gigi Bohan 7-5.
The third match to finish was the most stressful,
Flaminia Guidantoni and Ingrid Motserrat of the the Fire came back from a 4-3, then a 5-4, and finally a 6-5 deficit to rally and overcome the Raiders Amelia Galin and Addie Eklund 7-6 (7-4) in extras. The final win from the first flight granted the Fire the early 1-0 advantage.
Singles started well for Colgate as unfortunately Neiberline had to retire from her contest due to injury in line two versus Galin, Galin held a 6-1, 4-0 advantage when the match was ended, this tied the overall score at 1-1.
In line three Guidantoni continued her winning ways for SEU defeating Eklund in straight sets 6-0, 6-4 putting Southeastern as a team ahead 2-1. However, it did not take long for the Raiders to tie it back up as Bohan claimed victory over the new line six
Maria Martinez who was playing in place of
Irene Lopez. Bohan won 6-3, 6-2.
Line five concluded a few minutes later thanks to another personal win from Montserrat who up-ended Sasha Herman of Colgate 6-2, 6-4. After Montserrat came #11 Picardi who overcame a bout of a first set, playing much more confidently in the second set and conquering Cristobal 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 claiming the match victory for the Fire.
#32 Simas finished off Podlas in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, then a comfortable 6-3 third set victory, giving the Fire the 5-2 final score.
The #3 Fire return home on Friday for their second round of Sun Conference tennis versus the visiting #18 Ave Maria Gyrenes. The first serve of the match will be at 1 p.m.
