The women’s tennis team defeated Colby 6-3 on Sunday, its sixth win in seven all-time matches with the Mules. The Cardinals dominated singles play on their home courts to secure their sixth win of the spring season.
The Mules began the match with the lead after winning two of the three doubles matches. Wesleyan was defeated at the #2 and #3 doubles spots. Both losses were close matches as the number-two pair of Ania Preneta ’09 and Linda McDougal ‘11 fell 5-8, while Rachael Ghorbani ’09 and Madalina Ursu ’09 dropped a close match at 7-9. The number-one team of Sarah Miller ’12 and Anika Fischer ’10 gave the Cardinals their first point of the match with an 8-4 win.
Undefeated as a doubles team this season, Miller and Fisher are an example of the team unity that is an asset for the Cardinals this spring. Fisher played doubles her first two seasons for Wesleyan with teammate Ursu. This season, Fischer, who spent the fall semester in Italy, was paired with Miller, but she noted that both players bonded quickly during the team’s trip to Florida.
“I was nervous going into the season with a change to my doubles partner,” said Fischer, “but we unified as a pair over the spring break trip. I began to feel very confident with Sarah, and we began to work well as a unit during our training sessions in Florida.”
This confidence has been marked in Miller and Fisher’s undefeated doubles record. We expect their hard hitting to continue to help the Cards throughout the spring.
Rebounding in singles play, the Cardinals won five out of the six singles matches. Fisher continued her strong play for the Cardinals at number-one singles and won her second match of the day in a decisive 6-1, 6-1 victory. Miller also had a straight-sets win (6-2, 6-2) at number three; she is currently undefeated this spring. Ghorbani won a tough match at number four for the Cardinals. After losing the first set 4-6, Ghorbani came back to win the next two sets 7-6 and 6-3. Number-two Preneta (6-2, 6-2) and number-six Meredith Holmes ’10 (6-0, 6-0) also had straight-sets victories for the Cardinals.
The team’s win over Colby marks its first conference victory of the spring.
“The win over Colby was exciting because it is the conference wins that matter,” said Fischer. “We secured the win with a strong team effort. There were three courts still in play and we needed one singles player to win to secure a team victory. Two players won their matches, and this is an example of our team stability.”
The team extended their streak with a 7-2 victory over Connecticut College on Thursday to improve to 7-0 in the spring. The team faces a tough test on Saturday with a match at perennial power Middlebury, the teams’ first meeting since September 2003. The teams have split their last six matches, dating back to the 2000-01 season.
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