OCEAN, N.J. ? The Monmouth women's tennis team opened up the spring championship season with a 6-1 setback against the Delaware State Hornets last Friday in Ocean, N.J. Opening up their campaign at home, the Hawks faced a sharp Hornets squad, dropping every matchup except for a lone victory at sixth singles.

Freshman Britney Dupuis (Freehold, N.J./Colts Neck) tallied the solo win for the Blue and White at sixth singles with a drastic comeback victory, 0-6, 6-4, 10-8 over Delaware State's Julieta Yung. Picking up where she left off with a flawless 3-0 record at the last singles spot for the Hawks in the fall season, Dupuis gave MU their only spark of the afternoon.

The closest lost matches of the afternoon included senior Kaitlin Gallagher (North Haledon, N.J./Immaculate Heart Academy) being defeated by the Hornets' Polina Razborova, 6-0, 6-4 at second singles and junior Diane Washer (Ogdensburg, N.J./Wallkill Valley Regional) dropping a 6-3, 6-1 match to nationally ranked Hornet, Hannah Adewumi (#118).

The Hawks dropped all three doubles matches, with the closest margin of loss coming from the duo of Gallagher and fellow classmate Sarah Ragan (Lanoka Harbor, N.J./Lacey Township) who fell to Delaware State's Andrade and Newton, 8-3 in first doubles action.

With the loss, Monmouth drops to 0-1 in the young spring season while Delaware State moves to 3-0 overall. The Hawks finished the fall season with an overall record of 3-10 including three victories over NEC opponents.

MU will return to the courts this afternoon when they travel to Brooklyn, N.Y. for a NEC matchup against Long Island at 4:00 p.m.