HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (March 20, 2026) -- Salve Regina University men's and women's tennis matched up with three other schools for the first time ever on the Seahawks' sixth spring break trip visiting Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Each team played three matches over four days (March 16-19) in the Palmetto State with the women competing against Macalaster College (Minn.) twice and sweeping SUNY Oneonta, 7-0, on March 18. Seahawk men also played the Scots (Macalaster) and Red Dragons (SUNY Oneonta) while also tackling the No. 4-ranked team in the country, Denison University, out of Granville, Ohio.

The first spring break travel for tennis featured the 1995 men's team in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Both teams traveled to Hilton Head Island for the first time in 1999, and again in 2001, before heading further south to warmer climate in Orlando, Florida, in 2004. In 2006, when the World Baseball Classic premiered, Salve Regina women's tennis coordinated its spring break trip to Puerto Rico with a match versus Mayaguez on the school's west coast campus to include attendance at the Cuba versus Puerto Rico baseball game at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan.

The Seahawks have also played spring break tennis in (fittingly) Tennessee in 2022 before returning to the Sunshine State and competing on the newly-built USTA National Campus (2023, 2024).

Highlights from this recent trip included a 7-0 sweep for the Seahawks over the Red Dragons in women's action on Wednesday afternoon. In a rematch on Thursday morning for the women versus Macalaster (Scots won 6-1 on Monday), Salve Regina split the six singles matches and took one of the three doubles to inch closer to victory, ultimately falling, 4-3. Freshman Kole Pinto (Fairhaven, Mass.) scored a three-set triumph at third singles for the men against Macalaster in their first-ever matchup.

The Seahawks then posed for a photo at the Van Der Meer Tennis Center (front row, l to r): Kobi Bondzie, Coach Sailor Nordstrom, Amanda Quinn, Sophia Padro, Greenly Waugh, Rory Shultz, Sloane Nelson, Cayla Dolan, Rei Otake | (back row, l to r): Coach Stevens, Coach Sam Middleton, Emma Robert, Madigan Murphy, Stephanie Davis, Cristiana De Vivo, Jesper Jensen, Sadie Rieg, Kole Pinto, Jacob Faulise, Kaydin Pinto, Anna Grace Hjerpe, Colin Fleet, Coach Casey Farrell '23.

Salve Regina men's tennis (0-7, 0-0 NEWMAC) plays at Rhode Island College on Wednesday, March 25, at 3:30 p.m. Salve Regina women's tennis (2-6, 0-0 NEWMAC) opens the conference slate (along with the men) on Saturday, March 28, at home when the Lions of Emerson College visit Newport.