Unfamiliar end for tennis

Andrew McDermott

When the Quinnipiac Bobcats tennis teams traveled down to West Windsor, N.J., to take part in the Northeast Conference championships this past weekend, they had their eyes on the prize.

The men’s team made it to the championship round before losing to Fairleigh Dickinson by a score of 4-0 in 2008. The women’s team, on the other hand, has won the NEC Tournament for five consecutive seasons, beating Long Island all five times.

Over the course of the weekend, the No. 3 men’s tennis team and the No. 1 women’s tennis played to come out victorious. However, both teams ended up coming short.

The men’s tennis team took on the No. 6 Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers and won the match 4-0. John Hughes, Brian Mikkelson and Charlie Feldman won their singles matches to receive points. Hughes, paired with James Kwei, as well as Tom Curran, paired with Joe Nuara, won in doubles matches to receive the doubles point.

Saturday morning was not as successful for the men’s tennis team. In a match-up against the No. 2 Sacred Heart Pioneers, the Bobcats fell by a score of 4-2. Hughes and Mikkelson both won their singles match to gain points for the Bobcats, however Lane, Kwei and Curran lost giving the Pioneers a 3-2 lead. Mikkelson and Kwei won their doubles match, however Hughes, teamed up with Feldman, and Curran, paired up with Nuara, lost their doubles matches to give the Pioneers a 4-2 victory, eliminating the Bobcats from the tournament.

In their first round, the women’s tennis team defeated the No. 8 Robert Morris Colonials by a score of 4-0. Adrienne Markison, Natalie Duckor and Kasey Rosenberger all won their singles match to put the Bobcats up 3-0. The teams of Mary Wilson and Markison, Duckor and Lisanne Steinert, and Nicole Adams and Rosenberger all won their doubles matches to give the Bobcats the doubles point.

On Saturday morning, the Bobcats took on the No. 4 Sacred Heart Pioneers and won by a score of 4-1. Markison, Duckor and Rosenberger all won their singles matches. Steinert lost 6-4, 6-3, but the Bobcats has a 3-1 lead. Wilson and Markison won their doubles match, as did Rosenberger and Adams. Duckor and Steinert dropped their doubles match, but the Bobcats had already earned the doubles point and won the match.

For the 10th consecutive year, the Quinnipiac Bobcats women’s tennis team made the Northeast Conference championship game. In 2000-2003, the Bobcats had lost to UMBC Terriers in the championship game, but from 2004 on, the Bobcats had defeated the Long Island Blackbirds.

In no surprise to the teams in the league, Long Island and Quinnipiac met up in the 2009 NEC Championship match on Sunday morning.

In the singles competition of the championship game, Wilson (4-6, 1-6), Markison (4-6, 1-6), and Adams (1-6, 3-6) all fell. Duckor received a point for the Bobcats with her 6-3, 6-2 victory in the three spot.

Wilson and Markison fell (1-8) in the first doubles match, and Duckor and Steinert (3-8) fell in the second doubles match to give the Blackbirds the doubles point and the 4-1 victory.

With the losses, both of the Bobcats tennis teams came up empty handed, looking ahead to next season to hopefully make it back to the tournament.