In their final dual match of the season, the Wesleyan women’s tennis squad ran into a tough Bowdoin team, falling 6-3 to the Polar Bears on Saturday in windy New Brunswick, Maine.
Fifth and sixth seeds Susannah Ragab ’06 and Sarah Connell ’05 both secured wins in the singles draw, as did the top doubles pairing, Tiffany Lo ’05 and Ashley Brick ’05, but the Cardinals still fell to 0-6-1 on the fall season.
“I think overall we played well, but not to our potential,” Connell said. “I had high hopes that we would win. It’s harder to have a close loss, like we did against Bowdoin, then to get blown away. A close loss leaves one dwelling on the matches and trying to figure out what it was exactly that wasn’t working. I’ve no doubt that we could have won.”
Ragab notched her third win in four matches Sunday, knocking her Bowdoin rival off in two sets, 7-6 and 6-1. Like Ragab’s rollercoaster match, Connell battled to a tiebreaker win in the first set, 7-6, and followed that up with a solid 6-3 win in the second set.
“The first set was tough on account of the wind,” Connell said. “My opponent liked to rush the net so winning the point was contingent on either hitting a more difficult passing shot or lobbing it over her head. It wasn’t until the second set that I began to consistently hit lobs that weren’t blown out.”
The first four matches in the singles draw were not nearly as kind to the Cardinals, as Bowdoin took home all four wins. Lo fell 6-1, 6-0, Victoria Santoro ’07 got knocked out 6-0, 6-2, and Rika Tsuchiya ’05 went down 6-1, 6-3. In the second spot, Brick had a rough loss in the first set, 6-2, and then managed to fight back in the second set, only to lose 6-4.
The Cardinals took the opening match of the doubles with a big 8-4 win by Lo and Brick, but failed to earn any other points. Because of windy conditions all matches were forced indoors.
“A few teams had a hard time in doubles adjusting to the indoor courts. Everyone definitely put in a good fight, a few people came up short, but we had some success,” Brick said. “Tiffany and I are very confident in our doubles ability. Our games complement each other very well. We had expected to have a good match against Bowdoin, but we knew that if we played well we could win.”
The other pairs, Santoro and Megan Henderson ’06 and Ragab and Tsuchiya fell 0-8 and 1-8 respectively.
This weekend, the women’s team heads to Amherst to compete in the New England Division III tournament. The ladies have high expectations for their final matches of the fall 2004 season, and a few wins against women they lost to earlier this year would not hurt.
“Regardless of our fall record, in past years, the team has always performed well in the NEWITT tournament,” Connell said. “There’s no reason to think that we won’t be able to turn up the intensity again. Going out with a bang would bode well for the spring. Personally, I plan on having some fun and giving it my all.”
“I think that we have a great chance to finish in the top 10 this weekend and I look forward to some great doubles matches and solid singles play by the team as a whole,” Brick said. “We have worked very hard this season and have improved with each match, so I am confident that we will take another step forward this weekend at NEWITTs.”
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