By Jen Toth '14

Ewing, NJ...The College of New Jersey women's tennis team defeated the Pioneers of William Paterson University 9-0 on Wednesday afternoon, extending their impressive conference winning streak to 139 straight matches.

TCNJ is now 3-0 in conference play and on the season, while William Paterson is 0-2 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference and on the season.

To start off the match, the first doubles pair of Karisse Bendijo (Egg Harbor Twp., NJ/Egg Harbor Twp.) and Allison Tierney (Berkeley Heights, NJ/Governor Livingston) posted an 8-1 win over Christina Puleo (Leonia, NJ/Leonia) and Sonja Pedersen (Rockaway, NJ/Morris Knolls). With this win, Bendijo and Tierney tied Christina Contrafatto and Jackie Shtemberg for second place on TCNJ's all-time wins by a doubles team at 45.

Senior Emily Petersack (Mercerville, NJ/Notre Dame) and freshman Deborah Wu (Westfield, NJ/Westfield) defeated their opponents with the same score in the second slot. To round out doubles competition, Paige Aiello (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) and Alex Bologno (Point Pleasant, NJ/Point Pleasant Beach) won their match in the third position by a score of 8-1.

In singles play, Bendijo topped Puleo in straight sets of 6-2, 6-2. Tierney, Aiello, Petersack, and freshman Sarah Lippincott (Millville, NJ/Millville) all won by scores of 6-0, 6-0 for the Lions.  This is Lippincott's first singles win in collegiate action.  Also, Bologno defeated Maris Ferreira (Ridgewood, NJ/Ridgewood) in the final match of the day with a score of 6-1, 6-0.

The Lions are home again on Saturday hosting the annual Lions' Invitational, with New York University and Muhlenberg College participating.