Men’s, Women’s tennis fall 5-4 in four close matches

By Koppany Jordan
Elm Staff Writer

As many headed home for spring break to get some rest from the stress of classes this semester, the men and women’s tennis teams continued their work on the court, taking on Virginia Wesleyan and Christopher Newport.

Both Washington College teams drove themselves and motivated each other to compete strongly. In all their matches, both teams came out on the losing end with a 5-4 result. This shows, however, the hard work and closeness in talent when compared to their competitors. Though coming up a little short, this is a learning experience for the Shoremen and Shorewomen, who will have their first conference match this week.

Facing the Virginia Wesleyan Marlins, both the Shoremen and Shorewomen prepared for their matches and were ready to compete. The Shorewomen opened with a 2-1 lead over the Marlins, but Virginia Wesleyan rallied to tie when Ryherd beat McNicol, 6-4, 6-3, at No. 2.

However, Washington College took a 3-2 lead when Cohen completed a 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory at No. 3 over Torres. Falling behind once more, freshman Marielle McIntyre gave the Shorewomen a 4-3 advantage over the Marlins, with her 6-2 6-0 win.

Nonetheless, the Virginia Wesleyan Marlins accompanied them and the match came down to the final game.

Junior Amy Stevens then lost in the third set, concluding the close match between the Marlins and the Shorewomen.

On the other hand, the Shoremen had been down 2-1 at the start of the match against the Marlins. In doubles, the Shoremen put up a good fight but fell short at the end.

In addition, the Shoremen came close to beating them but also fell short by one point. However for sophomore Dan Boaté, he won at singles and doubles which was a proud achievement for him.

The next match that the two teams played was against the Christopher Newport Captains, who was also a regionally ranked team like the Shoremen and Shorewomen.

Everyone knew this was going to be a close one from the start. The Shoremen worked to hard to keep the Captains in check throughout the match and held the lead 2-1 after the doubles matches had taken place.

However, the Captains procured a win over the Shoremen by posting wins in the first four singles matches to make the score 5-2. Determined to not let the score widen, the Shoremen were driven to not let this happen. The match came to a finish as Boaté beat Manilla, 6-2, 6-4, at No. 3 and Novick topped Sloan, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 5 singles.

For the Shorewomen, they too were down 2-1 after their round of doubles and with two single losses the score moved to 4-1.

The Shorewomen were not finished though and with freshman April Weaver and freshman Gyeyeon Kang’s singles wins the score became 4-3. However, the Shorewomen fell behind and finished 5-4 like the Shoremen.

Both teams will open with their first conference matches on Saturday, the Shorewomen at Dickinson and the Shoremen with their first home match on March 23 at 3 p.m.

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