The Syracuse women’s tennis team continued its successful season with a 7-0 win over Patriot League foe American on Saturday at Drumlins Country Club. The team improved to 11-6 overall, 5-0 in the Big East. With the loss, American dropped to 1-15 on the season.

The win makes this year’s team the fifth SU women’s tennis team to win more than ten matches in a season. The program began in 1975.

SU won all three doubles matches, to earn one of the team’s seven points. Freshmen Victoria Vaynberg and Catherine Zawadzki beat American’s Julia Colarusso and Tessa Hollyn-Taub, 8-4. Sophomore Katie Bramante and junior Wei-Ming Leong beat Brandi Keigman and Rachael Honig, 8-1. Freshmen Pearly Leung and Jessica Juricek shut out Melissa Hollinger and Brynne Ward, 8-0.

Head coach Mac Gifford was impressed with the girls’ performance in the doubles round.

‘We’ve worked on doubles virtually every day,’ he said. ‘And I think we did a really good job.’

SU’s final six points came in the singles round, Syracuse won each match. Vaynberg, Zawadzki, Carolina Huignard, Bramante, Kendyl Severino and Ashley Lipton each won in straight sets.

Part of the reason the girls have had such a successful year is the team chemistry. Leung, a freshman, said that when the team traveled to California over Spring Break for three games, the girls had a lot of time to bond.

‘We spent so much time traveling to get to the schools. It was tiring, so we tried to make the best of it,’ she said. ‘A lot of the girls had never been to California, and they got to see a lot of the scenery.’

Vaynberg, also a freshman, also thought the Spring Break trip brought the girls closer together.

‘We were already close,’ she said. ‘But then we went to California and there were four or five girls to a room. We all got along well; it kind of felt weird to not be together all the time when we came back.’

Gifford agreed that the team has played well, but said there’s still room for improvement.

‘They’ve learned a lot of tennis this year and they do many things well,’ he said. ‘But we need to get over the hurdle of beating very good teams.’

Gifford said one of those teams is Boston College, which SU will play next Sunday. If SU wins, it will complete an undefeated season against Big East opponents. Katie Bramante, a sophomore, said the team is looking forward to the game.

‘We’ve been waiting for it all season,’ she said. ‘They’re tough, but so are we.’