After going weeks without playing a match, the Oswego women’s tennis team was ready to do battle once again in the SUNYAC Tournament. Over their entire regular season they had lost only two matches out of the 15 played. Their only Ls were handed to them by the New Paltz Hawks and the University of Rochester, both of which they were blanked in. Outside of these two blips on their radar, their season was a smashing success. In the tournament, they captured the second seed overall, just behind the aforementioned Hawks. The Lakers played the Cortland Red Dragons, while the Cardinals of Plattsburgh were fed to the Hawks. 

Three doubles matches started the day in Binghamton. Emily DeLuca and Leah Bell came out firing, winning game one 6-2. Not to be outdone, Avery Borman and Isabella Eason put seven up to the five managed by two of the Dragons. The game featuring Kate Hayes and Emily Lyga went unfinished, but the Lakers had jumped out to a 2-0 lead. 

Singles were up next and first on was Rafaela Dimitrakopoulou. This was the only Cortland point of the day, when Emma Madigan blanked Dimitrakopoulou 12-0 over two games. But the Lakers would get right back courtesy of Borman and Bell winning both of their sets. DeLuca’s single went unfinished, but Eason was able to close it out in the fifth singles for the Lakers. With that, Oswego advanced to the SUNYAC Final the following day against the Hawks, who had chewed up the Cardinals with ease. 

Doubles got off to a rocky start, with the first set going unfinished. Eason and Borman could not hold off New Paltz’s Sydney Sladicka and Angelica Gabriel and neither could Lyga and Hayes with Olivia Kunz and Nina Genzone. Singles were not much better for the Lakers, as Dimitrakopoulou and Borman were dispatched with ease. Isabel van der Veen of the Hawks would clinch it for New Paltz, blanking Bell to win the title. Even though they left the championship empty-handed, this was by far the most successful season in Oswego women’s tennis history. A historic undefeated run from the beginning of the season culminated in a shot at glory, but the New Paltz Hawks won their third women’s tennis title in a row. 

The Oswego men’s tennis team were in the playoffs as well, but in their Empire 8 conference. On the same days as the women’s SUNYAC, the men’s team was having their final matches of the regular season, which they both won. They clobbered the Saxons of Alfred University 9-0 and won a hard fought battle against Houghton 6-3. It would be the latter that they would face off against in the semifinals. 

Doubles brought nothing but victory for the Lakers, but in slightly different forms. The duos of Matthew Mannara and Anthony Marcano, Austin Davis and Jose Miguel Garcia Moreta found victory rather easily, winning 8-4 and 8-3 respectively. Colin Byer and Tyler Yhun went down to the wire to get their dub, winning by a slim 8-7. 3-0 so far for Oswego. 

Singles was absolutely dominated by Oswego’s rackets, with Mannara and Marcano winning their sets by a cumulative 12-3 and 12-2 respectively. Houghton’s only point of the day came at the hands of Graham Cook, narrowly defeating Davis. But it would be freshman Garcia Moreta that clinched the semis for Oswego, defeating Benjamin Unger 6-1 twice. 

The men’s team could see the top of the mountain, but the only thing in their way was Thomas College in the semifinals. They headed out to Nazareth to do battle with the Terriers on the first of May, against a school they had never played before.

Photo by: Oswego Athletics