WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. - The Daemen College women's tennis opened up the spring portion of its 2015-16 schedule today by defeating crosstown rival Medaille College 9-0 in the opening match of the Third Annual Daemen/Medaille Invitational held at Miller Tennis Center.

The match marked Daemen's first outing since a 7-2 loss at College of Saint Rose in their fall season finale back on October 18.  The win moves the Wildcats to 6-11 overall this season, and they've now won all three all-time meetings with their tournament co-hosts.  Daemen also improves to 6-0 all-time in this tournament.

Medaille, an NCAA Division III affiliate and member of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, drops to 6-8 overall on the season.

Coach Stephen Beatty's squad swept through tonight's doubles competitions to open the match.  The Wildcats' top pairing of junior Karli Hollins (Orchard Park, N.Y./SUNY Geneseo) and freshman Jessica Robins (North Tonawanda, N.Y./North Tonawanda) were 8-1 winners over MC's Liz Barrett and Colleen Voigt.  In the No. 2 slot, Leighanna Hewes (Boston, N.Y./Hamburg) made her debut for the Wildcats, teaming with sophomore Gretchen Ringler (North Tonawanda, N.Y./North Tonawanda) to down the Mavericks' Emily Insinna and Cho Thiri Tun, 8-1.  And, in the third spot, veterans Maria McGrath (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) and Aman Shamaa (Clarence, N.Y./Clarence) took out Jessica Smith and Kyla Krathaus, 8-3.

The clean sweep continued into tonight's singles competitions.  Hollins, Ringler, Robins and Hewes all became double-point scorers by winning their respective singles matches in slots one through four.  Freshmen Delaney Fragale (Lockport, N.Y./Lockport) and Morgan Park (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) helped Daemen complete the whitewash by winning in the Nos. 5 and 6 singles slots, respectively.  Hollins and Fragale were both victorious without dropping a single set, while Hewes and Park each earned the first singles victories of their careers. 

Hollins is now 9-6 in singles matches this season, pulling within one win of team leader Hayle Scanlan (Indianapolis, Ind./Perry Meridian) who did not compete today after going 10-10 last fall.

Tournament play resumes tomorrow at Miller Tennis Center with one neutral site match as Alfred University faces Rochester Institute of Technology, before kicking into high gear with four matches on Sunday.  Daemen faces Alfred at 12:30 p.m. and meets RIT at 5 p.m.