ONEONTA, NY — The No. 6 Alfred University women's tennis team went to No. 3 Hartwick College and took down the Hawks 4-3 on Tuesday night.
AU (7-6, 4-4 Empire 8) went tooth and nail with the hosts. After falling on Saturday at the Saxon Tennis Courts 7-0 to Hartwick, the Saxons served sweet revenge to move on to the final four of the Empire 8 Tournament.
"Holy cow. What a day. What a team. I can't summarize quite how I feel now but I'll start with how proud I am. Proud of our fight today. Proud of our seniors. Proud of how we support each other. Proud of how we never ever backed down to a challenge," Head Coach Jordan Crouch said. "Hartwick is a great program. We knew it was going to be a tall task today but we had a couple of great days of prep and the team was so focused on the task today. From first ball to last, we expected determination from ourselves and each other. We were down during doubles and came back for a big win. Huge effort out of our single matches today. From 1-6, I think it's the best I have seen every player play."
Alfred would start the afternoon by snatching the doubles point from their #2 and #3 positions. Elizabeth Madsen (Portland, OR/Grant) and Camryn Moore (Prattsburgh, NY/Prattsburgh Central) won from the #2 spot 7-6 with a 7-1 tiebreak.
Alexis Gits (Irondequoit, NY/Irondequoit) and Allison Windisch (Pittsford, NY/Sutherland) also came back in their doubles match 7-5. It would not be the last time either of them forced a comeback victory.
The depth of the Saxons would again provide them the three single points needed to get the team win. Moore swept 6-2, 6-3 in the six spot to put AU up 2-0 at the time.
Hartwick would get the next three single points from the top three positions, only needing one more singles win to advance themselves. The Saxons dug deep behind Gits, finishing the penultimate match of the day with a 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 comeback victory.
All attention turned to Windisch in the four spot to close out the final point for the visiting Saxons. The senior captain took the first set 6-4 before falling 2-6 in the second set.
Windisch would battle in the final set, coming back from 5-4 down to force a tiebreak seventh point. The tiebreaker went back and forth, needing to win by two in the end. AU would get the final two points to come out with an insane 10-8 tiebreak win to earn the final point, where she fought off and came back from five match points.
"Allison was a rock star today. Alyssa and Becca played so well in their single matches. Liz was incredible in doubles. Cam had a MASSIVE win for us at 6th doubles. Also, our bench energy was incredible," Head Coach Jordan Crouch said. I know that Allison was loving the energy from her teammates. Shouts to Abby, Caitlin, Anastasia, and Coach Bob for being incredible today and running all over the place helping our team out. Onto Fisher on Friday. LET'S GO SAXONS!"
Alfred University will next play St. John Fisher on Friday with a time to be determined, hosted by SUNY Geneseo. The Saxons beat the Cardinals 6-1 on their senior day earlier this season and look for a repeat effort to advance to the championship match on Saturday.
— Swords Forward Saxons —
