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ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University women's tennis team dropped their season-opener to visiting, non-conference opponent, SUNY Oneonta on Thursday evening on the William T. Brown Tennis Courts, 0-9.
 
The look that the Saxons' doubles teams gave head coach, Mike Graham something to talk about. "I was actually really pleased with how our doubles teams did early on," Graham said. "Oneonta is a high-caliber team and we hung in there especially with Nurila [Kambar] and Amber [Smith] at No. 2 and Tori [Pellegrino] and Sarah [Grace] at No. 1 doubles."
 
The duo of junior Nurila Kambar (Almaty, Kazakhstan/Republic Physics and Mathematics School) and sophomore Amber Smith (Prattsburgh, NY/Prattsburgh Central) had a close bout at No. 2 doubles against Oneonta's Sam Felice and Mya Lipscomb. The pair fell 4-8 while sophomore Tori Pellegrino (Whiteboro, NY/Whitesboro) and senior Sarah Grace (Rochester, NY/Penfield) neared that score as the dropped a 3-8 decision at No. 1 doubles to Alyssa Brault and Julieta Eulau.
 
In singles, Grace fell to Eulau at No. 2 with scores of 2-6 and 3-6 while junior Inda Gillett (South Kortright, NY/Delaware Academy Central) fell to Felice at No. 5 singles 0-6, 4-6. Kambar rounded out the top three Saxon performers in the second round of play with a 6-4, 7-5, 0-1(5-7) loss to Emma Messenger.
 
The women's tennis team was the first Alfred University team to compete in an official athletic event in the 2017-18 school year. The Saxons will next play in the second match of a five-match home streak when they host the Hawks of Hartwick College on Saturday, September 2 at 1pm. The match will also be the first Empire 8 contest of the 2017-18 academic year for the entire Saxon department.