Golden Eagles Outlasts Yeshiva, 5-4, Advance to Skyline Finals

Edgewater, NJ|The St. Joseph’s College (L.I.) women’s tennis team advances to the Skyline Conference Finals for the second-stright season after defeating Yeshiva University, 5-4, in the conference semifinals late on Wednesday night. With with win, the Golden Eagles improve to 13-2 on the season, while the Maccabees end their season with a 6-4 record.

Yeshiva got off of to a quick start as Shani Hava and Tzipora Leiser defeated Shannon Merker andVictoria Makulik 8-2. Kelley McGrath and Rita Wehrli evened up the score, dismissing Jannah Eichenbaum and Tova Hirt in the second doubles match.

Erika Hesselbirg and Victoria Panicola sealed the second point for the Golden Eagles defeating Galila Shapiro and Lindsay Frucher 8-4.

Hava took on Merker in the first singles matchup of the night, as she defeated Merker in straight sets 6-0,6-0. Makulik defeated Leiser in the second match 6-2, 6-1, and Hesselbirg doubled SJC’s lead when she defeated Shapiro 6-3,6-4.

Yeshiva bounced back to tie the game 4-4 as Frucher defeated Panicola 6-4, 7-5, and Ayala Carl took Wehrli to three sets winning her singles match 0-6, 7-5, 6-1.

The deciding fifth set featured McGrath and Eichenbaum at the number three slot. McGrath took her opponent to two tie-breakers as she clinched her team a spot in the Skyline finals winning her set 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3).

The Skyline final will feature the Golden Eagles and Farmingdale State in a rematch of 2014 championship on Saturday Oct. 24 at 1:00 PM on Farmingdale’s campus. The winner of the match will receive a bid to compete in the NCAA tournament.

Be sure to visit SJCGoldenEagles.com for full St. Joseph’s College (L.I.) athletics coverage, and follow us on Twitter (@GoldenEaglesSJC) and Instagram (@SJCGoldenEagles) for up-to-the-minute updates.