Beaver Falls, PA – Geneva's women's tennis team opened the 2018 post-season with a first-round play-off victory over Saint Vincent in what was the first team play-off set-up in the Presidents' Athletic Conference. The PAC changed its post-season format for 2018 and has gone to a team set-up and on Tuesday, Geneva opened the play-offs with a hard fought 6-3 victory over Saint Vincent. The victory moves the Golden Tornadoes into the PAC semi-finals where they will face perennial PAC powerhouse Grove City in one of Friday's semi-final matches to be played on the campus of Washington & Jefferson.
 
Geneva and Saint Vincent had just met on the court one week ago in the Golden Tornadoes' regular season finale. Geneva handled things fairly easily in that match with a 7-2 decision. However, head coach Mandee Craft knew that the post-season would bring on some additional challenges. "We knew it wouldn't be easy today," said Craft. "It's a huge mental test to face a team you just beat the week before, especially when you know you're fairly evenly matched."
 
Geneva seemed to set the stage for a successful day early when it won two of the three doubles matches. A week ago, the Golden Tornadoes went down 2-1 after doubles play so it seemed as the script would be an easy one. Felicity Orndoff and Jana Newberry, who lost a week ago in second doubles, flipped the script and finished off an 8-5 decision to get Geneva on the board. The number three doubles team of Victoria Hinds and Bekah Locke picked up another victory with an 8-3 decision.
 
Geneva only needed to win three of the six singles matches to get the win and that would be exactly what it did. The match tightened up with Saint Vincent taking a pair of singles wins early but Geneva's Rachael Letterman held on for an 11-9 third set tie-breaking victory in first singles for a crucial team point. Number two doubles was much of the same with Katherine Deitrcik winning a third set tie-breaker 10-7 for another hard fought victory. The fifth and match-winning team point came on Hinds' 6-2, 7-5 victory in fourth singles. Newberry closed out the victory with an impressive come-from-behind victory that ended with yet another third set tie-breaking win by the score of 10-5.
 
"Huge credit goes to Saint Vincent for the way they played," said Craft. "Our ladies were able to withstand that pressure and to pull out wins the way they did down the stretch speaks volumes about who we are. We've focused a lot on excellence this year and that's what I say tonight. It was a very rewarding match for our program."
 
Geneva will face Grove City on Friday at 1 pm with the winner of that match advancing to Saturday's championship match at 2 pm. The consolation match between semi-final losing teams will be played on Saturday morning at 11 am.
 
Geneva's overall record moved to 8-5 while Saint Vincent finished its season with a record of 6-7.
 
Geneva College is a Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor. Offering over 80 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs, and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. U.S. News & World Report ranks Geneva as a Top Three Best Value Regional University with one of the Top 100 engineering programs in the nation. Adhering to the truth of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's Word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world.