Alumni weekend is coming up, but this may as well have been freshmen weekend. Things could not have gone much better for the Binghamton women’s tennis team over the weekend at the Binghamton Invitational. Led by their three star freshmen, the Bearcats rolled to a 20-4 overall record for the two-day event, thoroughly outplaying Marist, Colgate and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in the process.
Freshmen Anna Edelman, Lauren Bates and Yulia Smirnova were all dominant, each sweeping their singles and doubles matches on their home turf. Bates built on her undefeated record for the fall, improving to 9-0 in singles and doubles as she continues to dominate the opposition in her standout fall season. Edelman and Smirnova both raised their singles records to 7-1.
‘All three freshmen looked very strong at the top of the lineup,’ head coach Mike Stevens said.
Edelman was particularly ruthless in disposing of the competition, dropping just six games total in dismissing Elise Derose of Colgate and Fatima Kasem of NJIT.
‘I played out of my mind today,’ Edelman said. ‘I wasn’t missing at all.’
Aside from the three freshmen, the rest of the team shone over the weekend as well. Sophomore Danyelle Shapiro, also undefeated this year, dropped just one game in her three singles victories, including two 6-0, 6-0 victories. Her workman-like effort is a very encouraging sign, as she is expected to be a rock at the bottom of the singles lineup just like she was last year. Senior captain Gayathri Balasundar and junior Alex Sinclair picked up match victories for the Bearcats over the weekend as well, highlighted by Sinclair’s 6-0, 6-0 thrashing of NJIT’s Grace Bogdan.
‘Everyone played well. We look pretty good at this point in the season,’ Stevens said. ‘We won some matches against some tough competition. I like where we are right now.’
The Bearcats host their first dual match of the season against Siena on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. They then have two weekends off before closing their fall season in Virginia at the ITA Regionals.