As Patriot League play nears for the men’s and women’s tennis teams, each team is still struggling to find their identities. After a slow start, the women have gelled together to win their past four matches. Two of those wins came this past weekend against St. Bonaventure and Marist. However, the men’s team hasn’t been as consistent in its play, as it dropped two matches last weekend to St. Bonaventure and Buffalo. Each team’s play has not been indicative of the true level of talent and if either team intends on dethroning reigning Patriot League champions, Army, then one aspect in their games will have to surface: consistency.

The women’s dominant play in doubles earned them wins in all of the six doubles matches in against the Bonnies and Red Foxes. Doubles play has been one of the sticking points of the women this season, and they will have to continue their great chemistry in the doubles field in order to assert themselves for the rest of the season. Juniors Elise DeRose and Cameron Williams continue to tenaciously vanquish their opponents, and the Lady Raiders have become dependent on their first doubles duo to get off on the right foot.

In singles play against St. Bonaventure, captains DeRose and senior Erin Fenn won first and third singles with scores of 7-5, 2-6, 10-8 and 6-1, 6-1 respectively. Senior Cameron Thaney went on to win the fifth singles 6-2, 6-2. The Lady Raiders only suffered one loss in singles en route to their 6-1 victory over St. Bonaventure. In the following day’s match against Marist, the women swept singles and doubles play as they toppled the Red Foxes 7-0. If the women continue to consistently perform dominantly in singles play, Army might have to watch out for the underdog Raiders in league and tournament play.

Head Coach Bobby Pennington seems to feel the same way as he emphatically exclaimed, “The women are taking care of business and improving every week. Next week we will drive for five in a row!”

Unfortunately, this weekend was a wake-up call for the men’s team as they lost both matches against St. Bonaventure and Buffalo. If they want to take advantage of all the talent on this year’s team, they will have to consistently play at the level that they played at against Niagara and Boston University. Against the Buffalo Bulls, senior Marty MacIntyre was the only Raider to obtain a win in the match as he defeated Kirill Kolomyts 7-5, 3-6, 10-7 in the number one singles spot. The Bulls cruised past the Raiders with a 6-1 victory.

Bad became worse as the men faced St. Bonaventure. It seemed like déj? vu for the Raiders as MacIntyre got the ball rolling with a victory in the first singles spot over Chris Post 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Sadly, the match continued in the same fashion as the Buffalo match, as Colgate battled hard but was unable to obtain any more victories. The outcome of the match was another 6-1 drubbing.

After this weekend, the women’s team improved to 4-3 and the men’s team dropped to 3-5. Both teams must travel west to frigid Rochester to face the University of Rochester on March 1. This is a great opportunity for the women to continue their dominant play and for the men to right the sinking ship.