The women’s tennis team continued its fall tournament schedule with the Bucknell Tournament on Sept. 26-27. Lafayette and Saint Francis (Pa.) made the trip to Lewisburg only to be disappointed by the barrage of success the Bison had in singles and doubles.

The squad bounced back well after the Bucknell Invite on Sept. 19 and 20, as Maria Cioffi ’16 defeated teammate Lisa Jouravleva ’18 in the Flight A singles final (6-­2, 6­-3). In Flight B singles, the Bison were able to muster a second place finish by way of Stephanie Pino ’16, who fell short in her final match against Saint Francis. The Bison also boasted their own duo in Flight C singles, with Jorie Fox ’17 beating out Allison Lane ’18 to capture the title (8­-3).

“We spent the past week focusing on execution of the small things. We play great tennis, but sometimes we lose our focus just a little and we don’t finish our shots or finish the points the way we should,” head coach Rebecca Helt said.

This focus was embodied in the play of Cioffi, who also paired with Michele Urbinati ’17 to earn the doubles crown in commanding fashion.

“I think I performed well this weekend because when I was playing right next to one of my teammates, we would talk to each other and encourage each other throughout the match,” Cioffi said. 

There was also a large home crowd for this tournament, which certainly gave a boost to the team during match play.

“It was awesome to have our home tournament during Parents Weekend. Almost everyone’s parents showed up, and it was great to have that support and have the biggest crowd of fans,” Helt said.

With one tournament remaining in the fall, the Bison are focusing more than ever as they have a fiercely competitive and talented group of women.

“You have to stay focused the entire match and never let yourself think that it’s going to be an easy shot, or an easy match. You have to execute your skills on every single shot. We don’t like to lose, but we especially don’t like to lose when we know we could have executed better,” Helt said.

The Orange and Blue will travel to Emmitsburg, Md. from Oct. 3­-5 for the Mount Saint Mary’s Invitational, their final competitive tune-up before a brief winter hiatus.