Jamaica, NY (Sept. 12, 2015) – The Purchase women's tennis squad opened up their 2015 campaign with a battle against non-conference Baruch College on Saturday, falling short by a score of 6-3 at the York College courts. 
 
Baruch (3-0) opened up the scoring with three straight wins in doubles action. At second doubles, Roula Zyada (SR/Cairo, Eqypt) and Caroline Haldeman-Emmerling (JR/Miami, FL). Despite never playing doubles together before this match, the duo managed to salvage three games from their tough opponents, Jessica Zukovich and Hayley Bester, for a final 8-3 defeat.
 
At flight three doubles, rookies Nastaja Stepec (FR/New York, NY) and Margaret Lavin (SO/Rockaway Beach, NY) battled for each point but came up short with an 8-5 loss.
 
Junior co-captains Emma Yavel (Brooklyn, NY) and Erika Fulton (Wallingford, CT) dropped the No. 1 doubles match, 8-1, to Baruch's Daria Vasekina and Isabel Arias but went on to pick up wins at first and second singles.  Yavel defeated Haley Bester by a score of 8-7 at the No. 1 spot while Fulton picked up the No. 2 win with a 10-5 tie-breaker victory over Diana Fedorkova. 
 
The Panthers picked up their final point of the match after Nadia Shadi (FR/New York, NY) tallied an 8-4 win at the No. 6 spot. 
 
Despite the loss, head coach Susan Kaminsky was pleased with the team's performance and looks to build off the competitive non-conference competition.
 
The Panthers return to action Tuesday with a non-conference road match against Lehman College starting at 4 p.m.

—With Emma Yavel