Women’s tennis splits pair of matches against Whitewater, Chicago

Jon Lewis | Senior Sports Editor

It was a tale of two matches this weekend for the Washington University women’s tennis team. The No. 10 Bears coasted to a lopsided 8-1 victory of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Friday, then found themselves on the other side of the same scoreline Sunday afternoon against the University of Chicago.

In a weekend that was significantly impacted by the weather, Wash. U.’s first match was no exception, as the Bears and the Warhawks had to move into the Sunset Tennis Center to avoid the rain. Wash. U., as the No. 10 team in the nation, was favored against the No. 22 Warhawks, but head coach Kelly Stahlhuth said her team still had to be wary.

“Whitewater would have liked to have the upset,” she said. “It was a tough match.”

Things started slowly for the Bears in doubles, as Lisa Chionis and Grace Deering dropped their match 8-1, and Rebecca Ho and Kaylan Griffin struggled to pull ahead.

“In doubles, we had to get it going,” Stahlhuth said.

Eventually, Wash. U. did just that, with Ho and Griffin securing a 9-7 victory, and Sanjna Tripathy and Mindy Borovsky grabbing a comfortable 8-2 win.

“We battled back in doubles, and we kept it going through singles.” Stahlhuth said.

The momentum from the two doubles wins seemed to carry over to the next phase of the match, as Wash. U. swept singles play. Ho, ever reliable for the Bears, picked up a straight-set victory against Megan Humphreys, the No. 5 player in the nation. The win was a milestone for Ho, who surpassed the century mark in singles wins, and edged ever closer to the program’s all-time wins record. Her two wins Friday put her just six shy of Debbie Michelson’s mark of 183.

As for the rest of the singles matches, Deering and Tripathy both found themselves in battles, with Deering edging out an epic three-set victory 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (5-7), 1-0 (11-9), and Tripathy coming back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. The other Bears won straight set victories. Brigitte Hodge won her matchup 6-3, 7-5, Griffith won 6-2, 6-1 and Kate Lee needed a second-set tiebreak to finish off her 6-0, 7-6 (7-5) victory. The comprehensive performance in singles capped off an 8-1 victory.

Sunday, however, was a mirror image of the win against Whitewater. Once again, weather and other forces beyond the team’s control made for a chaotic prelude to the match.

“Things were up in the air, and we ended up going outside.” Stahlhuth said.

With rain forecasted, the women’s team was originally going to play their match indoors after the completion of the men’s match, along with Chicago. The men’s match, however, proved to be a marathon, and the teams improvised, moving back to the Tao Tennis Center so the women’s match could start on time.

After losing 5-2 to the Maroons at the ITA Indoor Championships in early March, and then coming closer but ultimately short 5-4 in a rematch earlier this month, Wash. U. was hoping it would be a case of third time’s the charm on Sunday. This, however, would not be the case.

If the Bears struggled in doubles against Whitewater, they had an even tougher time against Chicago. All three Wash. U. doubles pairs lost, with Ho and Griffith and Deering and Chionis both coming the closest at 8-5.

The lone bright spot for the Bears would be the continued dominance by Ho in singles play. For the twenty-fifth time this season, Ho won her matchup at number one singles, this one a 6-3, 6-4 victory against No. 20 Ariana Iranpour.

Ho’s victory would be the only one for Wash. U. that afternoon, as they would lose the other five singles matches. Deering, Griffith, and Tripathy would all push their opponents to the limit, losing narrow three set matches, but in the end the Bears could not find the wins they needed, and the match ended 8-1 in favor of the visitors.

“I think they figured it out a little more tonight,” Stahlhuth said of the difference between Sunday’s match and the last two matches against Chicago. “The last two times we played them, it was inside, and this match was outside.”

She added that her team was at the end of a packed slate, after playing three matches against ranked teams last weekend.

“It’s hard to have a couple of back-to-back weekends against tough teams,” she said.

Regardless of the reasons for the loss, the Bears will have to rebound fairly quickly. They host Principia Tuesday evening, before boarding the plane for Altamonte Springs, FL, to play in the UAA Championships. Stahlhuth said her Bears will take what time they have to try to understand what went wrong against Chicago and turn it into something positive in Florida.

“We have a lot of reflection still to go,” she said. “Hopefully, we get it figured by next week in Altamonte.”

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