Sept. 22, 2004

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY - The Marist women's tennis team defeated Sacred Heart this afternoon, 5-2 in its first match of the fall season. The Red Foxes were paced by junior Yana Tikhonko and senior Courtney McGeever, who each contributed wins on both the singles and doubles sides.

In the first singles matchup, Tikhonko swiftly defeated Lauren Galantie 6-2, 6-0. Marist senior Diana Perachio downed Sacred Heart's Pam Pillo in a hard fought 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 second singles match. Darcy Shoop got past Marist sophomore Megan Gureck, 6-2, 6-3 in third singles while Marist's Erin Godly defeated Lissa Van Brecht 6-0, 6-1. It was Godly's first collegiate match and her first victory as she soundly defeated Van Brecht in fourth singles. McGeever won her singles match over Jessica Schnell 6-0, 6-0, making short work of the Pioneers competition in fifth singles. Rounding out the Marist side was freshman Amy Albert, who dropped a three-set contest to Katelyn Kotredge, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 10-6.

On the doubles side, Marist won two out of three matches, good for the overall win. The team of Perachio and Godly fell to Sacred Heart's top two players, Galantie and Pillo, 8-6 in the first doubles match. The Red Foxes quickly rebounded as Tikhonko and Gurek defeated Shoop and Schnell, 8-3 and McGeever and Albert downed Kotredge and Kristina Frassanito, 8-5.

The Red Foxes improved their record to 1-0 on the season with the win. They will next be in action when they host Providence at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday Sept. 25.