The College of Staten Island women's tennis team came close to bumping off Hunter College's perfect record, but ultimately fell short, as the Hawks defeated the Dolphins, 5-4, in a match this afternoon at the CSI Tennis Center.  The Loss by CSI dips the team to 3-6 overall and 3-2 in the CUNYAC, while Hunter improved to 5-0, 5-0, respectively.

The Dolphins got off to a solid start, taking two out of three doubles flights as play got underway after a 35-minute delay.  The crisp Dolphins scored a quick 8-1 win by the No. 2 doubles team of Sophia Varriano and Maryna Incherchera.  A few moments later, CSI made it 2-0 when the No. 3 tandem of Katie Masterson and Jean Baak got past HC's Daniella Weitzman and Arielle Zeiff, 8-3.

The match changed complexion at the first doubles spot.  CSI was in a hole early, and even though they came back, Hunter was able to score an 8-6 win via Jennifer Kraham and Stephanie Ahwireng over CSI's Ilona Stoyko and Alena Vedeneeva.  Unfortunately, during the match, Vedeneeva angered an earlier injury, and was subsequently scratched at first singles.

From there, the Hawks took control and wrestled away the lead, scoring wins at No. 4 (Kaleda over CSI's Faith Avevor) and at No. 1, as Kraham defeated Varriano.  CSI evened things up, when Incherchera scored a 6-2, 6-1, win at No. 5 over Weitzman.  Attention then focused at the No. 6 spot, where CSI frosh Masterson was locked in a great battle with Hunter's Lumi Chan.  Chan scored a big 6-3 winner in the opener, but Masterson rallied back to win 6-3 in set two.  That set up a winner take all super-tiebreaker in the third set.  Battling darkness, Chan came from 6-5 behind to win it, 10-8, giving Hunter a crucial 4-3 edge.

Almost immediately after, CSI and Hunter exchanged wins at No. 2 & 3, resulting in the 5-4 final. 

CSI will be right back on the courts tomorrow, hosting conference-rivals Lehman College at 4pm at the CSI Tennis Center.