April 5, 2009
BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- Seeing its first action in school history against varsity-level competition, the Navy women's club tennis team showed well in spots against Lehigh, but dropped all four of its doubles matches against the Mountain Hawks. The Mids then turned around and won five-of-six matches against Moravian College in the nightcap. Both matches were deemed exhibition matches.
Navy is in its transitional season as it moves to varsity status next fall.
"I was pleased with the way we competed in both matches. Against Lehigh, regardless of the scores of any of the matches, we were in all of them," said Navy head coach Keith Puryear. "We talked about some areas we need to do a better job in to have more sucess at this level of play. But it was good to have experience of playing against one of our future conference foes. It will serve us well for varsity play next year."
The Midshipmen and Mountain Hawks played four doubles matches to complete their match. At No. 1 doubles, the Navy team of Julie Dias and Lindsay Olsen lost to Ariela Cohen and Allie Schwartz, 8-0. At No. 2 doubles, Brittney Boucher and Kristia Suriben lost to Julie Arthhofer and Liz Piscitelli, 8-4. Brooke Datko and Mere Wydra lost to Stacey Reich and Ruthie Furman, 8-0, at No. 3 doubles. Christina Montoya and Carissa Guthrie had a strong performance in an 8-5 loss at No. 4 doubles to Victoria Yityuk and Keira Murask Blank, 8-5.
"The teams of Boucher and Suriben and Montoya and Guthrie both played highly inspired tennis and were in their matches from start to finish," said Puryear.
Navy then turned around and won five of its six matches against the Moravian College varsity team for a 5-1 victory.
In doubles play, Dias and Olsen lost to Jami Fein and Dyana Swan, 8-4, at No. 1 doubles. At No. 2 doubles, Suriben and Boucher topped Alex Hay and Melissa Emery, 8-0. At No. 3 doubles, Wydra and Datko eased past M.K. Kelly and Kerry McKinley, 8-6. 6. Lastly, Guthrie and Montoya defeated Elizabeth Endy and Brianna Kavanagh, 8-6, at No. 4 doubles.
In singles play, Rebecca Carlson defeated Anna Meola, 8-6, and Boucher topped Melissa Emery, 8-2.
"Against Moravian, we showed what we learned in our Lehigh match earlier in the day. We came out focused and commited to our gameplans from the start," said Puryear. "I was pleased with our intensity in each of our doubles and singles matches. We are doing things that will help us to be successful next year."
Navy hosts the Towson Club team Sunday at 3:00 pm in Annapolis.
# GO NAVY #
