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Messiah Secures Post-Season Berth With 8-1 Win At Arcadia
Posted: 10/19/2009
Box Score | More Women's Tennis news
Senior Christy McGinley came up with two wins at the top of the Messiah order Monday afternoon.

By Jansen Hein, GoMessiah.com reporter
Glenside, PA — The Messiah women’s tennis team put together an impressive showing against Arcadia University to guarantee themselves a place in the post-season Monday afternoon, handing the host Knights an 8-1 loss. The win was a much-needed rebound from the heartbreaking 4-5 loss the squad experienced last week against Lebanon Valley College, while securing Messiah’s place in the four-team Commonwealth Conference Playoffs next spring.  

The doubles spark finally flared for the Falcons Monday, as head coach Sheila Bush said the team has been looking for some excitement in their doubles play as of late. With the doubles combinations continuing to see slight variations throughout the season, Messiah (6-5, 3-2) was due to find their groove, and find it they did: Messiah captured wins at all three doubles’ positions against a very talented Arcadia side (9-7, 2-4).

After senior Christie McGinley and junior Stacey Clark posted an impressive 8-4 victory at first doubles, second and third singles were a bit more intense as each match was decided by a single break. Senior Annie Gotchel and junior Katie Marstaller finished their opponents in classic doubles fashion, getting up a break and holding on at the end for an 8-6 decision. Junior Kristen Chen and freshman Andrea Gamber then stole a close win from Arcadia’s Irina Samson and Melissa DeBello in the third doubles flight, going back and forth all match, eventually coming to 7-7. The Messiah team turned on the burners and finished strong, winning the next two games to lead the team into singles with a 3-0 overall lead.  

Singles was much of the same for Messiah on the day, as their dominance continued. The Falcons took five of the six matches — all in straight sets. Marstaller, Gotchel and Chen each won their matches in similar fashion. Marstaller and Gotchel finished with scores of 6-1, 6-3 at the third and fourth positions, while Chen accomplished reverse set scores of 6-3, 6-1 at the number six flight.  

McGinely posted a solid 6-2 first set score at the top singles slot, but Arcadia’s Cory Mazen would not go away without a fight. A close second set ensued, but McGinley was up for the challenge and won the set by a break to finish the match with a second set score of 6-4.

The ever-consistent Clark finished the number two singles match in similar fashion, posting 6-2, 6-2 scores to finish with yet another win — her sixth consecutive win at the number two singles position. Junior Steph Knepper took the only loss for the team on the day, falling 2-6, 3-6 to the Knights’ Samson, who played a brilliantly in both singles and doubles.

“It is nice to see all of the pieces finally fit together on the same day,” Bush said afterward. “Doubles came up big for us which is something that needs to continue in the future. I could not be more proud of the girls today.”

Messiah will finish regular-season play Wednesday, as the team travels to Albright College. Match time is set for 3:30 p.m.