Purchase, N.Y.- The Hunter College women's tennis team opened up its season at Manhattanville on Wednesday afternoon.

Despite some promising individual performances, the Hawks (0-1) were unable to overcome their early struggles in doubles and a few key singles matches and ultimately fell, 5-2 to the Valliants (1-0).

In doubles play, Hunter's #3 duo of Sree Kolla and Summer Nietubicz shined, delivering a dominant 6-1 victory over Manhattanville's Sara King and Mikhalia Grant, giving the Hawks a much-needed point. However, Hunter couldn't carry that momentum through the rest of the doubles lineup. At #1 doubles, Anna Chapko and Julia Aksamentova fell 6-2 to Amaya Ortiz and Adrianna Filippelli, while Sara Contreras and Sara Novo were outmatched 6-1 by Manhattanville's Suzi Doyle and A.-Mercedes Ortiz at #2. Manhattanville secured the doubles point, entering singles play with a 1-0 lead.

In singles, Summer Nietubicz impressed at the #6 spot, cruising to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Mikhalia Grant, leveling the score for Hunter. However, the Hawks struggled to find consistency at the top of the lineup. Anna Chapko fell at #1 singles to Amaya Ortiz, 6-3, 6-3, while Sara Contreras was defeated 6-2, 6-0 by Suzi Doyle at #2 singles.

At #3 singles, Sara Novo mounted a strong comeback to win in a thrilling three-set match against Adrianna Filippelli, 4-6, 6-4, 10-7, giving Hunter their second and final point of the match.

Hunter's hopes of a comeback were dashed when Sree Kolla at #5 singles was forced to retire due to injury after splitting the first two sets with Sara King, with the score at 6-4, 1-6, 0-3. Julia Aksamentova also struggled at #4 singles, falling 6-1, 6-2 to A.-Mercedes Ortiz, sealing the victory for Manhattanville.

The Hawks return to the court for their first conference competition as they host John Jay as the USTA National Tennis Center on Sept. 14. First serve is salted for 12:00 p.m.