Women's Tennis Enters Skyline Playoffs as #3 Seed

Written by Joshua Soto (SJC-LI Sports Information)

Patchogue, NY| The St. Joseph's College (L.I) women's tennis team enters Wednesday's Skyline Conference Tournament as the #3 seed, looking to claim the program's first conference championship a year after falling to Farmingdale St. in the 2014 final.

The Golden Eagles will face #2 Yeshiva University in the semifinals on Wednesday afternoon, a side they lost to back on September 8. SJC wrapped up the #3 seed with a 5-4 win over Sarah Lawrence in which it picked up wins in three of five singles matches.

St. Joseph's is led by Victoria Makulik, who went 11-3 in singles play this year, and went 10-0 in doubles when paired with Michelle Stanczak.  She is a two-time Skyline Rookie of the Week this season and is amongst the conference leaders in wins.

Fellow freshman Victoria Panicola leads the team in singles wins with 12 and has two losses to her record this year. The freshman is 9-1 in her last 10 singles matches and is 4-0 in doubles. She has been SJC's key player at the bottom of the line-up.  Panicola took the deciding point as the Golden Eagles went on to beat Sarah Lawrence 5-4 on Saturday.

Senior Kelley McGrath has had a solid year for the Golden Eagles, compiling a 9-4 singles record with key wins at 3rd singles against Mount St. Mary, Purchase and Sage. 

Erika Hesselbirg, a 2014 Skyline All-Conference member, earned an 11-3 singles record playing in the 4th and 5th spot. Hesselbirg had key wins in matches vs. Sarah Lawrence, Mount St Mary and Purchase to lead SJC to the playoffs.  She went 5-0 in doubles matches this year, filling in where she was needed.

SJC and Yeshiva met back in their season opener, with the Maccabees claiming the upper hand winning the match 6-2. Makulik gave the Golden Eagles the only two points in the match, winning her singles match 6-0, 6-1 and defeating Tova Hirt and Lindsay Frucher with Stanczak by the score of 8-3.  McGrath's match went unfinished.

The opening –round match between the Golden Eagles and Yeshiva will be played at Binghamton Racquet Club in Edgewater, NJ at 8 PM. Full postgame recap will be available at sjcgoldeneagls.com.