The Binghamton women’s tennis team competed on the road over the weekend, playing Marist on Saturday and St. Bonaventure on Sunday. The Bearcats (2-8) were able to secure a strong victory over Marist (2-4) on Saturday, but came up short in a tight match against St. Bonaventure (4-4) on Sunday.

On Saturday, Binghamton lost only two matches in total against Marist. Junior Michelle Eisenberg, sophomore Regina Furer and junior Ashley Granieri each won a match in both singles and doubles. Freshman Jamie Lau, after winning her first set 7-5 but steeply losing 0-6 in the second set, recovered nicely to win 10-4 in a super tiebreak against Marist freshman Nina McAllan. Binghamton head coach Libby McGovern was impressed with the team’s performance throughout the day.

“We played very well against Marist,” McGovern said. “Everybody competed at a high level. A lot of the matches had some very close scores with several tiebreaks, a couple of three-setters. To be able to come away with a decisive victory at 6-1 means that a lot of rough matches that we played over the course of the season so far have started to pay off.”

The Bearcats played at a similar level of intensity on Sunday against St. Bonaventure but were not able to capitalize on crucial points. In singles, Binghamton secured three victories with the help of Eisenberg, Furer and Granieri. However, Binghamton could not secure a doubles victory when it mattered most. Eisenberg and her sister, senior Samara Eisenberg, were on the way to do just that, but ended up losing a close match against St. Bonaventure sophomore Penelope Abreu and sophomore Andrea Roque 7-6 (7-2). The Bearcat duo of freshman Kyra Bergmann and freshman Lara Kaplan came close to a win as well, but went on to lose to the Bonnies’ senior Kahlei Reisinger and sophomore Paula Velilla 7-5.

“St. Bonaventure played a little more aggressively than we did,” McGovern said. “Not drastically so, but they definitely executed at the net better than we did and served better across the board in all the doubles matches. It makes a huge difference at that level when you’re playing a tiebreaker and losing 7-5 at third doubles, it really comes to the little things, like executing your volleys and executing your serves.”

Binghamton played at a high level in both matches but tapered off slightly against St. Bonaventure on Sunday. Still, the Bearcats appear ready to bring that same intensity into upcoming matches.

“What we talked about after both matches was that against Marist we executed our game plan to a very high level,” McGovern said. “When you play tight matches, every point counts. Where we got in trouble against St. Bonaventure was that we did not execute as well in the big points and even some of the lesser points that lead to the big points. It really just comes down to making sure that you’re executing your shots, executing your game plan and making sure we don’t let things get away from us by making too many errors.”

The Bearcats return home this week to play against Eastern Michigan. The match will begin at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20 in the Binghamton Tennis Center in Binghamton, New York.