Colby women’s tennis opened up its season with a solid 8-1 victory over Colby-Sawyer College on Sunday, Sept. 11. Colby moves to 1-0 on the fall while Colby-Sawyer drops to 1-4.

The Mules made the most of the sunny early-autumn afternoon as they came away with two of three doubles points before sweeping singles play.

The second doubles team of Tess Perese ’14 and Mckenzie Love ’13 was victorious, winning 8-3, while Alex McAuliff ’13 and Victoria Abel ’14 defeated Colby-Sawyer’s sunglasses-clad third doubles team, 8-1.

Kathryn Vergeyle, the team’s lone senior, and Sarah Wiener ’13 fought back from a 7-4 deficit with a hold and a break to get back on serve, 7-6, but couldn’t consolidate the break and fell 8-6.

Carrying the momentum of a 2-1 lead into singles, the Mules won all six singles matches with relative ease.

Perese won at first singles, 6-1, 6-3; Vergeyle at second, 6-2, 6-0; Love at third, 7-5, 6-2; Erica Talamo ’15 at fourth, 6-0, 6-0; McAuliff at fifth, 6-4, 6-1; and Lucy O’Keeffe ’14 at sixth, 6-1, 6-0. Quite simply, the Mules outclassed their opponents in this contest.

Although head coach Doanh Wang was pleased to get the victory, he said, “That one blemish in the score is indicative of a lot of things we have to work on.” The Mules have held just five practices this season, and Coach Wang pointed out that “the nerves were definitely there. Everyone seemed to be working through some early-season jitters.”

“As a team we just needed to play our game, not to go down to their level,” added Wiener. “It wasn't ‘pretty tennis,’ but we were able to win regardless of looks.”

The Mules enter the season with a slew of new faces on the squad. After graduating two key contributors in Katie Brezinski ’11 and Katie Muto ’11, Coach Wang stocked up on young talent, adding six first-years (including five walk-ons) to the squad.

With such a young team, Coach Wang is looking for big things from Vergeyle. “It has been great to see Kathryn develop into a natural leader; it is something I think all coaches want to see in their players: grow, mature and develop into a positive role model for their teammates and other student-athletes on campus,” Wang said. “I am looking forward to seeing Kathryn continue to impact the program during her senior year.”

Colby women’s tennis will practice for a few weeks before its next competition—ITA Regionals at Bates College beginning on Sept. 30. Only the top few competitors from each New England teams will attend, so the level of play will be decidedly higher than what the Mules saw this past weekend.

But there’s no reason to believe the Mules can’t succeed at this competition, as they were able to defeat an NCAA Tournament team—SUNY New Paltz—on Spring Break last season.

Colby will then compete in three matches over Fall Break against the University of Southern Maine, Wheaton College and Simmons College.