The Sacred Heart women's tennis team opened the dual match portion of their schedule this week, earning a 7-0 win at Manhattan on Monday and beating UConn at home, 4-3, on Tuesday.  The win marks the first for the Pioneer program over the Huskies.

The Pioneers took the doubles point against UConn with wins at #1 and #3.  The team of freshman Gabi Kaldan (New Brunswick, NJ) and senior Darcy Demers (Norton, MA) won their match over Jen Learmoth and Emily Herb, 8-4, at first doubles while juniors Kate Donnelly (Centerville, MA) and Delaney Downing (Englewood, CO) rallied from down 5-2 to beat Lucy Nutting and Lauren Wilmarth 8-6 at third doubles.

In singles, SHU won three matches with all going into the third sets.  Donnelly defeated Learmoth at first singles 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. At fourth singles, Kaldan defeated Wilmarth 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 and the match came down to third singles where senior Elizabeth Harrington (Westerly, RI) dropped the first set 6-4, before coming back to win the second and third set 7-6 (5), 7-5 to clinch the win.

On Monday afternoon, the Pioneers travled to the National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York and came away with a 7-0 win over the Jaspers. 

Harrington led off singles play with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Hilary Valenzuela in the #1 spot.  Donnelly bested Christina Ton, 6-3, 6-0 at second singles, Kaldan won her third singles match, 6-4, 6-1 over Christina Puleo and Demers beat Stepahanie Tsao, 6-1, 6-1 at #4.

Rounding out the sweep in singles play was Downing who beat Brittany Turano, 6-4, 6-2 at #5 and junior Kristina Chao (Needham, MA) who posted a 6-1, 6-0 win over Kaitlyn Zaffuto at #6.

SHU won all three doubles matches as well led by Kaldan and Demers at #1, 8-2, over Valenzuela and Tsao.  Harrington and Chao teamed for an 8-2 win over Puleo amd Maffei at #2 and Donnelly and Downing won at third doubles, 8-4, over Ton and Turano.

The Pioneers will host the New England Women's Invitational this weekend.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx