NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Feb. 24, 2013) – Despite close scores that could have easily changed the outcome, the Saint Francis U women's tennis team lost its first Northeast Conference match against Sacred Heart at the Yale Tennis Center on Saturday night, 6-1.

The Pioneers came out and swept the doubles point in all three positions. Lucy Jasso (San Luis Potosi, Mexico/Instituto Potosino) and Rafaela Panizza (Jundiai, Brazil/), no. 1 for SFU, had the only opportunity up 4-2 and on serve failed to hold giving Pioneers Gabi Kaldan and Nicole Rydzewski the serving advantage. Able to hold serve at 4-3, The SHU women tied things up at 4-4. Saint Francis managed to pull off one more break but quickly have it back and the match downed 8-5.

“Coach Vanja and I are not happy with our doubles teams,” said Red Flash coach Paul Tobin. "We're going to change things around to see if we get better chemistry and can pull out two wins and earn the doubles point.”

Three out of the six singles matches went to third set tiebreakers but unfortunately none ended in the Red Flash's favor. Alex Sachs (Parkland, Fla./Stoneman Douglas), playing at no. 4 for SFU, picked up her sixth win of the year against the Pioneers' Lindsey Post pretty easily 6-1, 6-3.

Panizza, at no. 1, came back after a 6-2 first set loss to Sacred Heart's Gabi Kaldan. Up 2-1 in the second set, Panizza easily controlled all serving opportunities to dominate 6-4. Kaldan turned things up in the third taking an early 2-0 lead. Panizza fought back to 2-2 and found a break to go up 4-3. Kaldan increased her play, forcing errors over an injured Panizza and was able to dominate the next three games to close the set and match.

Camila Diaz (Carolina, Puerto Rico/Colegio La Piedad) put up another third set fight against Pioneer Alyssa Migliorini. After losing the first set 6-2, Diaz came back in the second; up 3-2 and on serve Diaz held and broke to win the set 6-2. In a super-disappointing super tiebreaker, Diaz tied at 3-3 was overcome with errors to go down 10-4.

"We certainly had the opportunity in singles to pick up points,” said Tobin. "Our players are still young and struggling to hold onto leads and close out matches. We are competing well, but at this point that's not enough.”