Feb. 21, 2009
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's club tennis team routed Johns Hopkins, but fell in close matches to good teams from Virginia and Georgetown. Navy defeated the Blue Jays, 18-4, but lost to Virginia (18-13) and Georgetown (28-17). Navy fell to 2-3 overall in its transitional season.
"I am really pleased with the improvement we are showing.I thought that we fought hard in each of our matches, putting ourselves in a position to win, but in the first and last match we were just unable to seal the deal," said Navy head coach Keith Puryear. "The two teams we lost to, Georgetown and Virginia, have both won this event in the past, and Georgetown is the defending champion, so we have absolutely nothing to be hang our head about."
The matches were scored in the World Team Tennis format. In this format, teams play ladies doubles, men's doubles, ladies singles, men's singles, and mixed doubles. For the first two rounds, which was pool play, matches were a four-game pro-set. In the last round, which was the gold round, which were being played to get into the main draw semi-finals, the players played a regular set.
In the first match against Virginia, Brittney Boucher continued her strong season with a 4-2 win over Byliss in the women's singles. The women's doubles team of Lindsay Olsen and Julie Dias lost to Addison and Lan, 4-1. Dias then teamed with Minour (men's team) to tie Lan and Huang, 4-4.
"We got down early in the first match and we could have let that get us down, but instead we fought back to and almost got the win," said Navy head coach Keith Puryear.
In the win over Johns Hopkins, Dias and Olsen teamed up to breeze past Sarah and Michelle by a 4-0 tally. Boucher topped Michelle in the women's singles match, 4-0, and Dias and Minour topped Shaoyi and Sarah, 4-0, in mixed doubles.
"In the second match against Johns Hopkins, who had beaten us two weeks earlier, I think we showed how much we have improved by handing them a 18-4 loss," said Puryear.
Lastly against Georgetown, Dias and Olsen topped Brown and Rome, 6-4, in ladies' doubles. Boucher lost to Beasley, 6-2, in the ladies' singles and Dias and Minour lost to Goldstein and Beasley, 6-4, in mixed doubles.
"Against Georgetown we just ran out of steam. We did a great job again of getting ourselves in a position to win, but ran out of gas and came up a little short," added Puryear. "I love the improvement that we are showing as a team and individually. We just need to continue to work hard, looking to continue to get better with each practice and match that we play."
Action at the MATA Sectionals will conclude on Sunday in Annapolis.
# GO NAVY #
