By Dustin Waleff, Contributing Writer
The Susquehanna women’s tennis team had a rough week of matches as they lost to the Alvernia Golden Wolves 6-3 on Sept. 24 and lost to Penn State Harrisburg 8-1 on Sept. 28 at the Garrett Tennis Courts in Selinsgrove, Pa.
On the doubles side of action, senior Amy Jennings and sophomore Anna Ream were a bright spot for the River Hawks, who went 1-2 in the doubles matches.
The pair played well as they were able to beat Alvernia’s Rachel Rineer and Leah Kemper 8-4 to pick up the first win of the match.
“We stayed positive during the match, so even when things were not going well we kept each other from getting down while boosting each other’s confidence,” Ream said. “Whenever Amy would serve my net play was important and vice versa, when I would serve her net play was important.”
Jennings and Ream have been a dynamic duo so far this season, going 2-1 in the regular season while also picking up a victory in their preseason invitational tournament.
“We have been practicing a lot together and working on learning from some of our past mistakes. Even when we do make mistakes, we make sure we are keeping each other going mentally so that we don’t get down on ourselves,” Ream said.
Meanwhile, in singles action, the River Hawks went 2-3 against Alvernia.
Picking up one of the singles victories was sophomore Ashlynn Searer, who dominated in straight sets of 6-3 and 6-0.
“I have been practicing a lot and that carried over into my performance on Tuesday,” Searer said. “I stayed in my positive mindset and stayed in the groove of just trying my best and not getting down on myself. When things do not go my way, I think through my mistakes and find ways to improve my play.”
Additionally in the singles matches, freshman Grace Tepes used an all-around solid performance to take down Kemper with a score of 8-4.
The next faceoff did not prove to be any better for the River Hawks as they were only able to win one of the nine matches versus Penn State Harrisburg.
On the doubles side, all three duos fell to the Nittany Lions, but Searer and sophomore Haley White kept their match close as they fell 8-5 to Rachel Lim and Sydney Nye.
Singles action proved to be the only bright spot in the otherwise rough afternoon for the River Hawks as they were able to pick up their lone win.
The lone win came from Jennings who was able to defeat Elle Mellot in straight sets 6-4 and 6-3 to get the River Hawks on the board with a win.
“I was concentrating on making fewer unforced errors during each point, as I was being more patient and waiting for my opponent to make the mistakes,” Jennings said.
“It was tough for me because I have always struggled with my patience, so that is something I am always trying to improve,” Jennings continued. “It worked fairly well yesterday, but sometimes it’s hard to get out of your head. It’s a mental game and you have to forget about the last point and focus on what is to come.”
Another strong performance on the singles side came from freshman Leanne VanEssendelft, who was able to force her match to the decisive third set against Claire Hackenberg but fell 6-3, 3-6 and 10-5.
The River Hawks will finish up the regular season and are looking to bounce back against Misericordia at 1 p.m on Oct. 5 at the Garrett Tennis Courts in Selinsgrove, Pa. Misericordia is currently 3-2 overall on the 2019 fall season.
