WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Messiah women's tennis team competed in the Middle Atlantic Conference Individual Championships on Saturday in Wilkes-Barre.
Rachel Marcroft and
Kaylie Ryder highlighted the Falcons' effort at the individual championships with victories at No. 1 and No. 3 singles in the First Round.
Playing in the top bracket,
Rachel Marcroft squared off with Misericordia's Hannah Bonk in the First Round of singles play. Marcroft dropped the opening set 6-4, but rallied back to claim the second set 6-2, forcing a tiebreaker third set. Marcroft edged Bonk 10-7 in the tiebreaker set to claim the match 4-6, 6-2, 10-7 and advance to the Quarterfinals.
The victory for Marcroft put her against Emily Fernandez, the No. 1 overall seed from King's. Fernandez moved into the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-0 victory, ending Marcroft's run through the bracket.
At No. 3 singles,
Kaylie Ryder claimed a dominating 6-0, 6-1 victory over Shade Obadina from Eastern to move into the Quarterfinals against Alexis Fuda from Stevens. Playing as the No. 1 seed in the bracket, Fuda claimed a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Ryder.
Marcroft and Ryder claimed Messiah's only two victories on the day. At No. 5 singles,
Heather Schmidt claimed five games in a 6-2, 6-3 defeat to Taelor Brown from Stevenson.
In doubles play, all three Messiah teams picked up a pair of games, but fell by scores of 8-2 in all three brackets.
The MAC Individual Championships will wrap up on Sunday afternoon.
