This weekend concluded the women’s tennis team’s fall season, finishing with a dual-match record of 4-1, the best in the NESCAC, and going 1-0 in NESCAC play, a notable improvement from last fall’s record of 2-3. Games over the past weekend and the previous Tuesday helped the team secure its record.
The Cardinals hoped to maintain the momentum of their thrilling victory as they entered the New England Women’s Tennis Division III Tournament, last Friday to Sunday. Many of Wesleyan’s best singles suffered defeat in the first round. Ania Preneta ’09, playing at the one spot, fell to Wheaton’s Catherine Teague 6-7, 2-6 and Middlebury’s Jamie Haar defeated Madalina Ursu ’09 6-2, 6-0. Babson’s Jessica Huang bested Linda McDougal ’11 2-6, 1-6 while Alex Sirois ’09 was ousted by MIT’s Melissa Diskin 2-6, 4-6. Despite a strong effort, Casey Simchik ’10 also fell in the first round to Bowdoin’s Stephanie Langer 5-7, 5-7.
Third-seeded Rachael Ghorbani ’09 displayed the strongest performance at this weekend’s tournament. She stumbled in the first match, losing the first set to Babson’s Heather Walsh 2-6, but Ghorbani dug in and went 6-1, (10-3) over the next two sets to take the match. In the next round she defeated Middlebury’s Whitney Hanson 6-1, 6-3 before she fell to Bowdoin’s fourth-seeded Rachel Waldman 1-6, 2-6 in the quarterfinals.
Ghorbani also enjoyed a strong performance in the tournament with doubles partner Sirois. They were strong in their first two rounds, soundly defeating Springfield’s Jessica Sousa and Shannon Desroches 8-3 and rolling in an 8-2 victory. Once in the quarterfinals, the tandem struggled as MIT’s Anisa McCree and Liz Denys enjoyed an 8-2 victory.
Preneta and captain Lizzie Collector ’09 would also advance to the tournament’s quarterfinals. They posted an 8-5 victory over Smith’s Seiko Fujii and Tina Jackson and defeated Brandeis’s Mackenzie Gallegos and Ariana Sanai in another 8-5 victory to advance to the quarterfinals. Once there, they struggled in a 5-8 loss to Tufts’s Erica Miller and Mari Homma.
The top doubles tandem of Anika Fischer ’10 and Ursu also competed in this weekend’s tournament, where they fell in their first match 2-8 to Wellesley’s Jennifer Schwarzkopf and Jacqueline Shen.
Last Tuesday the somen’s tennis team traveled to Babson Park, Mass. for a marathon contest, lasting over five hours, where Preneta helped the Cardinals with a dramatic 5-4 victory over the Beavers. The action continued this weekend, when the team returned to Massachusetts to participate in the New England Division III Tournament hosted by Amherst. The Cardinals had three quarter-finalists, led by Ghorbani, who reached the round of eight in the field of 23 players in addition to making a quarterfinals appearance with Sirois at number two doubles.
Tuesday’s contest against the Beavers opened with doubles play in which Wesleyan put on a dominant performance, sweeping all three doubles matches, including a thrilling comeback by Ursu and Fischer. They faced three match points before finally taking the match 9-7.
“It felt really great to dig out the win at first doubles,” Fischer said. “That’s the first time Mada and I have been able to come back. I feel like we are comfortable now as a team and trust each other a lot more, so we’re a lot calmer on the court.”
Ghorbani paired with McDougal for a nail-biting 9-8 (5) win while Preneta and Collector finished off the sweep with a dominant 8-3 win at third doubles.
The Cardinals may have been a little too relaxed as the Beavers stormed back into the match, winning four of the first five singles matches. Liz Sheerin of Babson started it off with a 6-3, 6-4 win at the six spot. Carla Becerra ’10 followed with a 6-7 (4), 6-1, (10-4) super-break victory at the five spot. Wesleyan’s Ghorbani was able to answer with a 6-2, 6-3 win at the third spot before Babson’s captain Kali Horgan tacked on a 6-4, 7-5 win at the two spot. With the score 4-3 in favor of Wesleyan, the match was moved indoors to the PepsiCo pavilion.
The Babson players were all exceptionally strong at playing long points and the Cardinals found themselves in matches that tested their limits.
“Babson’s players were all backboards and solid across the entire lineup,” Fischer said. “I think everyone was playing pretty well; All the matches had close scores, most went three sets. It’s really challenging to figure out how to play against people that solidly get the ball back to you. I think everyone felt the burn physically and mentally. Babson knew how to keep long points, and we had to move inside because it got too dark.”
Wesleyan only needed one of the two remaining matches to take the victory over Babson. The Beavers failed to back down as Huang enjoyed a 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 victory past McDougal.
With McDougal’s loss, the contest was knotted up at 4-4 and the victory rested squarely on Preneta. Preneta started out the match strong, rolling her opponent in the first set 6-2 only to lose the second set in dramatic fashion, falling 5-7. During the final set, Preneta kept up a hard serve and backhand, taking the match easily with a 6-2 victory.
The team resumes action in the spring.
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