The men's and women's tennis teams took impressive victories over No. 12 Salisbury University.
The men's team beat the Sea Gulls 7-2 and improved its record to 7-3, breaking Salisbury's six-match win streak. The women's team broke an 11-game Salisbury win streak as well when it defeated Salisbury 7-2 to improve its record to 10-5.
Before the match, the men's and women's teams were ranked No. 17 and No. 18, respectively.
Earlier last week, head coach Scott Dicheck showed enthusiasm for the matches against Salisbury.
"We are looking forward to (them)," he said. "They are highly ranked and have a very good doubles team."
For the men, the duos of seniors Mike Klimchak and Roger Mosteller (8-6), senior Eric Ferriere and sophomore Jeremy Eckardt (8-3) and freshman Jonathan Yu and junior James Vance (9-8) were victorious.
In singles play, Lion victories came from Ferriere (6-2, 3-6, 7-5), Mosteller (6-1, 6-0), freshman Matt Pierson (6-2, 5-7, 10-6) and Yu (5-7, 6-3, 10-4).
"Our team is full of great competitors," Klimchak said. "We know how to fight for every point, never give up and more importantly do whatever it takes to win. Our competitive spirit definitely gave us the edge over Salisbury."
On the women's side, the College improved its win streak to four as it lowered Salisbury's season record to 12-3. Winners in the women's doubles were sophomore Stephanie Haar and junior Haley Kutner (9-8) as well as sophomores Chrissy Principe and Tamara Wroblesky (8-2).
In singles action, the College took five out of six matches to gain the decisive victory. Winners included sophomore Jackie Shtemberg (6-1, 6-1), senior Christina Contrafatto (6-1, 6-1), Haar (6-1, 6-0), Kutner (6-3, 6-2) and sophomore Sarah Roser (6-0, 6-4).
Shtemberg now has a career record of 91-27 as she approaches her 100th victory. Contrafatto improved her career record to 135-52 and is currently ranked 14th regionally.
"The matches we played against top-10 teams in California have definitely given us the experience we needed," Kutner said. "Since we returned from the training trip, coach Dicheck has implemented more conditioning into our practices, which has greatly improved our overall stamina and ability to perform at full force."
Dicheck, in his eighth season as women's head coach, improved his record to 96-28.
The men's team will play home matches against Haverford College tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. while the women's team will compete against the University of Mary Washington on Saturday at 10 a.m.
