The women's tennis team fell for the first time in five home matches at the Mendham Racquet Club against Rutgers on Tuesday, 6-1.
The Pirates (10-8) now have to get back on track as there are only two regular season matches remaining before the Big East Championship.
Seniors Chloe Sher and Rocio Portela, Seton Hall's top doubles team, earned a victory on Senior Day as they celebrated their storied runs as Pirates.
They got an 8-6 win as they captured their tenth win in A-Flight doubles matches. The combo is now 10-4 overall in doubles matches and have a team-high 18 victories overall.
"Both Chloe and Rocio had competitive experience before coming to school," head coach Greg Wyzykowski said.
Wyzykowski also mentioned the strong bond Sher and Portela share.
"They are roommates and they get along so well, they're like a married couple," he said. "They bring that chemistry to the court and support each other and work well together."
Sophomore Alex Landert also scored for the Hall, posting a 6-0, 6-1 score as she dominated the sixth singles position. The victory was her first dual match singles victory of the year and moved her to 8-8 overall individually.
Wyzykowski, as well as the rest of the Pirates squad, is very aware of what Landert can do.
"Alex helped the team a lot in the past. I know she can produce good results," he said. "She is now getting healthy again and producing better results. I am happy she did well."
Though the Pirates lost, it took the opponent three sets to defeat Sher who lost round one 6-3, won round two 4-6, and then took the last set to 10 before narrowly suffering a defeat. Junior Madison Shoemaker also took a set past six losing 6-3 and 7-5.
The two losses brings Shoemaker's spring singles record to 12-0, with an overall singles re- cord of 21-5 on the season. She currently sports a 2-2 record in Big East matches.
Wyzykowski mentioned a few things to work on as the season winds down and the Big East Championship approaches, but consistency in all of his doubles positions was emphasized the most.
"We need to improve in doubles points and be consistent at both doubles positions," Wyzykowski said. "We can't always rely on the seniors. We have to get be- hind them and help them."
Seton Hall heads back to the court as they travel to Queens on April 11 to face Big East rival St. John's in the final conference match of the season. First serve is set for noon.
Tom Zappia can be reached at thomas.zappia@student.shu.edu.
