The men’s and women’s tennis teams are now in the home-stretch of their seasons which is during the heat of Patriot League play. Both teams have experienced topsy-turvy seasons, riding high on winning streaks and finding ways to get out of losing skids. This is the period when both teams will find out what they are made of and if all the hard work that they have exhibited throughout the season will come to fruition.

The men were riding a two-game winning streak heading into last weekend’s competitions. After dismantling Siena 7-0 and Patriot League nemesis Lehigh 7-0, the men headed down to Annapolis where they faced the Naval Academy last Saturday. The men weren’t running on all cylinders, as they dropped all three of the doubles matches to Navy. Junior John Nogueras was the only Raider to muster a victory, downing opponent Marcus Rebersek 6-2, 6-2 in Flight Two singles. This was the first Patriot League loss for the men.

The men rebounded from the Navy loss with an impressive 5-2 win over George Mason University the next day. Dominant doubles play helped the Raiders rout the Patriots as Colgate swept all three of the doubles matches. Senior captain Martin MacIntyre was a man possessed, as he teamed up with Nogueras to defeat Brian Fitzgerald and Daniel Schneider 8-2. Fitzgerald would have MacIntyre on the brink of defeat in singles play, but MacIntyre responded by taking Fitzgerald to three sets and claiming victory 6-7, 6-3, 7-6. Coach Bobby Pennington was pleased with the win, and was simply in awe of MacIntyre’s singles performance.

“This was a tremendous team victory, highlighted by an ESPN Classic type match at number 1 singles,” Pennington said.

The women didn’t start their Patriot League schedule on a positive note this year as they were crushed by Army 7-0. They looked to rebound and set the tone for the rest of their remaining league matches this past Monday when they faced Lehigh. The Raiders jumped out to a quick start with junior Elise DeRose and first-year Cameron Williams defeating Allie Schwartz and Ariela Cohen 8-5 in the first doubles spot. Unfortunately, the only other win that the women would get on the day would come from DeRose, who ousted Allie Schwartz 6-2, 6-1 in the first singles spot. The 4-1 loss to Lehigh was the women’s seventh consecutive loss.

The next couple of weeks will be extremely important for both the men’s and women’s teams. As both team’s progress into league play, they will have to do their best to defeat these teams in order to ensure high seeding in the Patriot League tournaments. The men will finish their season with strictly Patriot League opponents. They will host Bucknell on this Saturday followed by Army and Lafayette in two weeks. The women will be hosting Bucknell on this Saturday and will go on to face Patriot League foe Lafayette in two weeks.

After this week, the men improved to 8-7 (1-1 in league play) on the season and the women fell to 5-10 (0-2 in league play).