STEUBENVILLE – Franciscan women's tennis cruised through the first round of the AMCC tournament with a 5-0 win over the no. 6 seeded Medaille in the Lady Mavericks first-ever appearance in the tournament.

The two teams faced off to start conference play back in September so today's first round match provided head coach Jeremy Ellis with a lot of opportunities to see his team's growth from start to finish.

"There were some tighter matches the first time we played Medaille so it just kind of shows where we are at," Ellis remarked. "I think we are playing better, are a better team and we are ready to play."

All three Lady Baron doubles teams started out strong without signs of nerves. The sophomore duo of Maggie Vander Woude and Anna O'Connor were the first to walk off the courts with an 8-0 win at no. 3.

Senior Renata Crespo and freshman Julia Razook were not far behind with an 8-1 win at no. 2 doubles for Franciscan's second point. 

Just a few minutes later, junior Claire Haddad and Maria Binette closed out their no. 1 doubles match with an 8-2 win, giving the Lady Barons a 3-0 advantage to start singles play.

"It was good across the board," Ellis said. "Doubles played well. Serving well, volleying well is what's needed and they all did it."

With a 3-0 lead after doubles, the Lady Barons only needed to win two singles matches to secure the first-round victory. O'Connor and Vander Woude brought their strong play over to singles as O'Connor clinched the Lady Barons fourth point with a 6-1, 6-0 win at no. 6 while Vander Woude blanked her opponent 6-0, 6-0 to give Franciscan the win.

"Maggie and Anna play really well at five and six and so I was kind of counting on them to be the first two," Ellis said. "Anna has just played great all year and Maggie is playing great too. They quickly secured those next two points, which is what we needed. From top to bottom, we are playing well and we are really solid at the bottom as well."

With the first-round match out of the way, Franciscan can now focus their attention on no. 2 seeded Penn State Behrend who awaits them in the AMCC semifinals next weekend. Behrend took the regular season matchup 7-2 but the Lady Barons have been playing much better tennis since that match.

"I hope that we go out without nerves Saturday against Behrend," Ellis said. "They've been playing well so as long as they just keep their confidence up, we'll be ready."

Before the AMCC semifinal match, the Lady Barons will take on one more nonconference opponent in the regular season when the team travels to Westminster (Pa.) on October 16 at 4 p.m.

"We have Westminster coming up which will give us a good match prior to the conference tournament," Ellis said. "We'll see how that goes and everything is looking good."