September 26 , 2004

Sarah Coleman is presented with the championship trophy by tournament director Chip Fishback.

Kelly Graham (left) and Debbie Sharnak captured the Wilson/ITA Northeast Doubles Championship.

GENEVA, N.Y.—Hamilton College first-year Sarah Coleman (Covenant of the Sacred Heart/Bronxville, N.Y.) won the Wilson/ITA Northeast Singles Championship this afternoon, while the Vassar College tandem of sophomores Kelly Graham (Kennebunk/Kennebunk, Maine) and Debbie Sharnak (East Brunswick/East Brunswick, N.J.) captured the doubles crown this afternoon at William Smith College.

Coleman faced off with Sharnak in the finale. Coleman breezed to the championship match in straight sets in all five of her previous matches. She appeared well on her way to cruising through the final as well, taking the first set with relative ease 6-2. But Sharnak used powerful shots to battle back and take a 4-1 lead in the second set.

Calm and collected, Coleman simply bided her time, using smart shot selection and a seemingly bottomless well of patience to tie the second set 4-all. Sharnak grabbed the next game for a 5-4 lead, but Coleman put her away, sweeping the next three games for a 7-5 win.

The doubles final, like the singles match, was a Hamilton-Vassar affair. Junior Katie Donovan (Deerfield Academy/River Hills, Wis.) teamed with Coleman against Sharnak and Graham. The Brewers broke open a close match by capturing back-to-back games to take a 7-4 lead. The Continentals didn’t roll over, rallying to win the next two games, but Sharnak-Graham booked a flight to Florida with an 8-6 win.

The singles and doubles champions from this weekend’s tournament advance to the Oct. 14-17, Wilson/ITA National Small College Championships at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. Now in its 13th consecutive year in Geneva, the Herons have hosted the annual Women’s Northeast Championship every year since 1992.

The host Herons had just one singles player advance in the 64-player singles draw. First-year Tara Ware (Avon/Avon, Conn.) won her opening round match 6-3, 6-2, but fell 6-1, 6-3 in the second round.

In the doubles draw, senior Molly Patterson (Mountain Lakes/Mountain Lakes, N.J.) and junior Karen Newbury (Maine-Endwell/Johnson City, N.Y.) fell in the second round to the eventual champions, while the other Heron pair of seniors Laura Maier (Lancaster Country Day/Reading, Pa.) and Crystal Cordes (Mountain View/Mesa, Ariz.) lost to Coleman-Graham.

The William Smith tennis team is back in action at 4 p.m., on Sept. 28, when Ithaca College visits Geneva.

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