LORETTO, Pa. ? The Monmouth women's tennis team traveled to Pennsylvania for back-to-back conference matchups and came out with identical 6-1 team wins on Saturday and Sunday. The Hawks defeated Robert Morris on Saturday, 6-1 in Moon Township, Pa., and finished off St. Francis (Pa.), 6-1, on Sunday afternoon in Loretto, Pa.
Coach Patrice Murray's squad played solid tennis all weekend going undefeated in first, fourth, fifth and sixth singles while picking up points in all doubles matches.
The winning streak started Saturday when senior Sarah Ragan (Lanoka Harbor, N.J./Lacey Township) lead the Blue and White with a number one singles win over Robert Morris' Kali Delore, 6-3, 6-3 to open up scoring in the match. Fellow classmate Kaitlin Gallagher (North Haledon, N.J./Immaculate Heart Academy) posted her second singles win in the season with a hard fought 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 win over the Colonial's Libby Shaw.
Rounding out the wins for the Hawks against RMU was Jessica Slinger (Tinton Falls, N.J./Monmouth Regional), Kelly Friedrich (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial), and Britney Dupuis (Freehold, N.J./Colts Neck) all winning in straight sets at fourth, fifth, and sixth singles. The Hawks also picked up the doubles point with wins at second singles duo of Diane Washer (Ogdensburg, N.J./Wallkill Valley Regional) and Slinger posting an 8-4 win and the third singles team of Katie Tierney (Berkeley Heights, N.J./Governor Livingston) and Friedrich winning 8-6.
Bringing the momentum into Sunday, the Hawks took all singles matches - but second singles - to win the match with St. Francis (Pa.), giving the Hawks a 2-1 NEC record to start the season.
Ragan posted her second singles win of the season taking the first singles match in a fight with St. Francis' Abby Ball 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3. Katie Tierney bounced back from an earlier day's loss to win third singles 6-4, 6-1 and Slinger continued to improve her singles record at fourth singles winning 7-6(3), 6-3 to go 4-1 on the young season.
The Hawks posted wins at fifth and sixth singles and took the doubles win with second and third singles wins.
On the weekend, freshman Slinger and Dupuis went undefeated, winning their fifth and sixth singles flights. The underclassmen are a combined 8-3 on the season for the Blue and White.
The Hawks take their two-match NEC winning streak into October as they return to the home courts Wednesday, October 1st to take on conference rival Wagner at 3:00 p.m. at Firemen's Field in Ocean, N.J.
