On Saturday, April 14, Colgate sent both the men’s and the women’s tennis teams to Lafayette University to play against the Leopards in their last Patriot League matches of the year before playoffs. The women’s team fell in a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to Lafayette in its final regular season match. They are closing out their season with a final overall record of 6-13 and a Patriot League record of 1-5.

Senior captain Kelly Klein showed up and had an incredible performance on the courts. She dominated in both singles and doubles play. Together with her partner, senior Cheyenne Brown, they defeated their Leopards opponents at No. 2 doubles in a 6-4 match. Unfortunately, the doubles point went to Lafayette, who won in No. 1 and No. 3 doubles.

Klein also stepped up in singles where she sits at the No. 4 position. She defeated her opponent in two quick sets. First-year MacKenzie Deeter and sophomore Jordan Williams also took down their opponents in two sets. Deeter won the No. 1 match with consecutive 6-2 sets, and Williams won 6-3 in the first set and 6-4 in the second in the No. 3 match.

Klein commented on closing out her senior season.                                                                                    

“The Lafayette match was disappointing. It definitely was not an ideal way to go out as a senior but we have a really good opportunity to win the first round of the tournament so we’re looking forward to that,” Klein said.

The men’s team walked away from Lafayette after a clean sweep, dominating the courts with a 7-0 win over the Leopards. This is the third time in the last four seasons that Colgate has reached the 14-win mark, winning 15 of the 16 sets played.

Senior Jacob Daugherty, junior Alec Dardis, junior Noah Rosenblatt, first-year Jack Ablon and first-year Peter Hartman all won both their singles and their doubles matches. The doubles point was an easy victory for the Colgate team.

First-year Scott Bickel and Ablon were both near perfect in their singles matches, claiming them 6-1, 6-0. Dardis had the tightest match of the game in No. 4 singles. After winning the first set 6-3, he fell in the second set 4-6 and won in an extended third set 10-7.

On Sunday, April 15, the men’s team had its final match of the season. They faced off against Binghamton at the Binghamton Tennis Center and fell 5-2 in what was a very tight match. The Colgate men finished their season with an overall record of 14-6 and a Patriot League record of 4-1.

Daugherty picked up two victories. In No. 1 singles, he fought back with two consecutive 6-4 set wins after dropping the first set 6-1. In doubles, Daugherty and Dardis held strong and took down their Binghamton opponents 6-3. All three Colgate teams won in doubles, absolutely dominating and taking the doubles point for the Colgate score.  All of the singles matches were incredibly close, and five out of the six of them were sent into the third set. 

“We were two single points from winning. That being said, an outstanding regular season at 14-6 and 4-1 in league play and hopefully we get a very high seed. We now turn our attention to making a deep run in the tournament,” head coach Bobby Pennington said.

The Patriot League tournament will begin on April 26 and continue through April 29 at Colgate’s home courts.

Contact Annie Hayes at [email protected].