BOX SCORE

Pine Valley, NY -- The Elmira College women's tennis team continues its dominant run through the Empire 8 Conference as the Soaring Eagles defeated Nazareth College, 8-1, for their fifth consecutive win. EC moves to 7-1 overall and 6-1 in conference play heading into their final match of the regular season.
 
Today's match also marked two items that neither team has encountered in quite some time. EC's 8-1 win marks the first win over a Nazareth women's tennis team since before the 2000 season, a stretch of 20 matches including the postseason. Additionally, with Elmira's victory, Nazareth has been eliminated from Empire 8 Tournament contention, the first time in program history that the Golden Flyers will miss the conference tournament.
 
The Purple and Gold got off to a good start in today's match, despite a layoff of nearly two weeks, taking two of three doubles points. Elmira's first doubles team of Kimberly Salkin'18 and Ayaka Yoshino'16, who took down a Nazareth doubles team at last weekend's USTA-ITA Northeast Regional Championships, continued their strong play against the Golden Flyers, winning 8-1. Kayla Fitzgerald'15 and Megan Fitzgerald'18 followed suit at third doubles, winning 8-2. EC's lone loss of the day came at second doubles, as Amy Schmidt '15 and Rebecca Zeuschner '18 fell 8-2.

Elmira erased what little hope there was for a Nazareth comeback with a dominant showing in singles. Schimdt and Salkin made it a 4-1 match with straight set victories at third and first singles, respectively, giving up a total of one game between them. Then, Kayla Fitzgerald followed with a 6-1, 6-0 win at fourth singles to clinch the win for EC. Yoshino, Megan Fitzgerald, and Ellen Plowman'16 completed the singles sweep with wins at second, fifth, and sixth singles, respectively.
 
The Soaring Eagles have a short turnaround as EC hosts Stevens Tech on Sunday, October 5th at 1:00 p.m. for both teams' final Empire 8 match of the regular season. Stevens enters tomorrow's match undefeated in conference play after edging out Ithaca College, 5-4, earlier this afternoon. 

Singles Competition
1. Kimberly Salkin (ELMIRA) def. Jean McCarthy (NAZARETH) 6-0, 6-1
2. Ayaka Yoshino (ELMIRA) def. Ami Petosa (NAZARETH) 5-7, 6-2, 1-0 (10-5)
3. Amy Schmidt (ELMIRA) def. Elizabeth Crane (NAZARETH) 6-0, 6-0
4. Kayla Fitzgerald (ELMIRA) def. Adrienne Sharza (NAZARETH) 6-1, 6-0
5. Megan Fitzgerald (ELMIRA) def. Audrey Knorr (NAZARETH) 6-1, 6-2
6. Ellen Plowman (ELMIRA) def. Carlee Hastings (NAZARETH) 6-1, 7-5

Doubles Competition
1. Salkin/Yoshino (ELMIRA) def. Sharza/Lindsey Crawford (NAZARETH) 8-1
2. McCarthy/Petosa (NAZARETH) def. Schmidt/Rebecca Zeuschner (ELMIRA) 8-2
3. Fitzgerald/Fitzgerald (ELMIRA) def. Crane/Knorr (NAZARETH) 8-2