This past weekend, the Colgate women’s tennis team traveled to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to compete in the quarterfinals of the Patriot League Tournament. Despite their best efforts, the Raiders closed out their spring season by falling to the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, losing the match 4-0.

At the match’s outset, Lehigh came out strong by winning the doubles point after their No. 1 and No. 2 doubles teams defeated doubles teams of senior Hannah Fleckenstein and sophomore Lauren Hyland, and senior Kaelin Brittin and first-year Jordan Williams respectively. Fleckenstein and Hyland were defeated in one set that ended with a score of 6-3, while Brittin and Williams also lost in one set that concluded with a score of 6-1. The No. 3 doubles team of senior Kirstie Woodbury and first-year Lauren O’Brien were unable to complete their match after the fall of the No. 1 and No. 2 teams.

Despite the early setback, the team fought hard in singles play, which lasted for nearly three hours. The No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 matches all advanced to third sets, but were ultimately left unfinished as Lehigh managed to procure victories in other matches. Lehigh first-year Sibel Can defeated Williams to nab the No. 2 point, while junior Kelly Klein lost the No. 5 match to Lehigh senior Cassidy Cruz. Senior Jamie Campisi clinched the winning point for the Mountain Hawks by defeating Brittin in the No. 6 singles match. Though Lehigh took the win before they were able to finish their matches, Hyland, Fleckenstein and Williams all won a set in their matches. Despite the team’s disappointing loss, head coach Bobby Pennington was extremely proud of the team’s performance.

“Never in my career have I been prouder of a team. We had four singles matches last over three hours and go three sets. Colgate women’s tennis is back with a winning regular season and far exceeding our preseason ranking of seventh. Lehigh came within one point of beating Army this year and we had four singles matches go the distance and this match could have easily finished 4-3. Our ladies maximized every ounce of their availability. We will miss Kaelin, Kirstie and Hannah, but the future is very bright,” Pennington said.

The team ended its season with an overall record of 9-9, or .500, for the first time since the 2012-13 season. As for conference play, the Raiders ended the season with a record of 3-1, the first time they finished with a conference record above .500 for the first time since their 2006-07 campaign, when they went 3-1 in the league. From these stats alone, this Raider season can be viewed as a success.

With this victory, the Mountain Hawks improved to 10-8 overall. After Friday’s win against the Raiders, Lehigh advanced to the tournament semifinals the following day, where they fell to the Army Black Knights, a match that concluded with a score of 4-2. The Black Knights were the top seed going into the tournament, but would go on to lose the finals of the tournament to Boston University the following day.