Los Angeles, Calif. - The Colby Women's Tennis team played its first match of their spring break trip on the West Coast on Sunday afternoon against Occidental College. Coming into the match on a two-game win streak, the Mules hoped to continue their early season success in California. The Mules fell behind early in the dual match, dropping the opening doubles point. Occidental's first and third doubles team defeated Colby 6-2 and 6-3 respectively. At the second position, Colby's duo of sophomores Jade Finestone and Michaela Landry won their match 6-4, but it was not enough to get Colby over the hump. Losing two of the three doubles matches, the Mules headed into singles play down a point, needing to win four of the six singles matches to salvage the match.
The Mules started out singles play strong, tying the match at 1-1 with a straight sets victory at the #6 position by senior captain Amelie Gal 6-3, 6-4. First-year Anna Rende soon followed Gal's victory with a win of her own at the #5 spot, convincingly defeating her opponent, 6-2, 6-3. Occidental followed Colby's early success in singles play with two wins of their own. First, at the #4 spot Occidental won 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 and soon after won at the #3 spot in straight sets, taking the lead over the Mules 3-2 in the dual match.
Just two minutes after Occidental took the lead back in the dual match, Landry answered with a straight-sets victory of her own, 7-6(2), 6-2 at the #2 spot, tying the match up at 3-3. With only one match to determine the ultimate victor, it all came down to the #1 position. After winning the first set 6-4 and losing the second 3-6, Jade Finestone found herself in a third set with a chance to clinch the match for the Mules and start the team's spring break trip on a high. The beginning of the set was neck-and-neck, with players matching each other shot for shot. However, at two games a piece, Finestone raised her level another notch, too much for her opponent to match. She went on to win the next four consecutive games, defeating her opponent 6-2 in the third set, clinching the dual match for the Mules.
With Finestone's win, Colby clinched the match 4-3 against Occidental in epic fashion. The Mules are now on a three-match win streak and have improved their overall record to 5-1. The Mules will have a few days off before they play their next match against Williams College on Wednesday afternoon.
