The Orange and Blue won two of the three doubles matches to earn the Bison their first point against Youngstown State on Feb. 19. Maria Cioffi ’16 and Michele Urbinati ’17 won 6-2 at No. 1 doubles, as they continue their previous success from last spring. Lauren Fishbein ’19 and Lisa Jouravleva ’18 won 6-3 at No. 2 doubles. Fishbein then added the sole singles win with the score of 6-3, 6-3. The team unfortunately fell 5-2 to Youngstown State in its first match of the season.

The Bison bounced back from the loss when they played Saint Francis on Feb. 20, coming back big with an astounding 6-1 win. Fishbein finished with a perfect weekend as she won her singles match 6-2, 6-4 at the No. 3 spot. She then proceeded to win her doubles match with Jouravleva 7-5 at the No. 2 spot.

“We had a great time, both days we were extremely aggressive at net and both of us were serving extremely well. I was definitely more nervous coming out for singles than I was for doubles, but I was able to put that aside and just focus on everything I had practiced off-season,” Fishbein said.

Fishbein and Jouravleva have played together for years, even before their careers with the Bison.

“The team this year has a lot of depth and you can tell everyone really wants to win. Even though we lost our first match against Youngstown state 5-2, all the matches were really close in score. Coming out Saturday for our second match against Saint Francis, everyone was really fired up to win and we did. We’ve been working really hard on doubles in practice and it really showed this weekend. All three teams were really aggressive at net throughout both days,” Fishbein said.

The other singles winners for the Orange and Blue were Cioffi (No. 1), Jouravleva (No. 2), Urbinati (No. 4), and Mishi Papich ’19 (No. 5). This was Papich’s first career win. Cioffi and Urbinati joined Jouravleva and Fishbein in doubles victories with a thrilling 7-6 win at No. 1.

The Bison will travel to New York on Feb. 27-28 to play Niagara and St. Bonaventure.