Jan. 26, 2011
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's tennis team takes to the road for the first in the 2011 season as it travels to College Park to face the University of Maryland on Thursday at 3:00 pm. The Midshipmen enter the match with a 1-1 record, while it will be Maryland's first match of the spring season. Navy will host Syracuse on Friday at 1:00 pm and Saint Joseph's on Saturday at 8:00 am before finishing the weekend off against Morgan State (noon) and Delaware State (5:00 pm) on Sunday. All Navy's home matches will be played at the Brigade Sports Complex.
"It's going to be a challenging weekend, starting with Maryland and Syracuse. Both are very strong treams and we will be pushed," said Navy head coach Keith Puryear. "It's an opportunity to see where we stand and see if what we concentrated on this week in practice will pay dividends. We are just looking to continue to try and improve. Everyone will have a chance to play and mix it up."
Navy is coming off a 1-1 start in last weekend's action against Saint Francis (Pa.) and UMBC. The Mids won their opener agianst Saint Francis (Pa.), 6-1, thanks to wins in five of the six singles matches and in all three doubles matches. Newcomers Katie Laderer (So. / Norfolk, Va.) and Caitlin Olsen (Fr. / Los Gatos, Calif.) posted impressive victories in their first dual-meet action. Dye Das (So. / Cherry Hill, N.J.) and Natalie Houle (So. / The Woodlands, Texas) also recorded wins against the Red Flash. In Navy's four singles wins combined (No. 6 was a win by default for Navy), the Mids lost just eight total games. In doubles play, the No. 1 tandem of Haley Adams (Fr. / Woodstock, Ga.) and Das posted an 8-1 victory, while Laderer and Julia Zook (Fr. / Seattle, Wash.) won 8-4 at No. 2 doubles.
Navy then suffered a 4-3 setback to a strong UMBC squad in Saturday's nightcap, despite some impressive performances from Navy rookies. Playing in their first career duals, freshmen Darien Sears (Silver Spring, Md.) and Erin Snook (Tampa, Fla.) won Navy's two singles matches against the Retrievers. Sears started slow, but won her first set in a tiebreaker and cruised home in the second set for the straight-set victory. Snook, meanwhile, rolled at No. 5 singles where she lost only one game in a 6-0, 6-1 victory. Navy's other win came via default at No. 6 singles.
"We were really quite pleased with the newcomers and thought they really played very well," said Puryear. "Darien had a little hiccup at the start of the match but looked really strong after that. Erin rolled in her match and played really well against an opponent that she beat in a three-set tiebreaker during the fall. Caitlin played well throughout her entire match. There were some nerves, but that was to be expected."
The Syracuse match on Friday starts a 13-match home streak, all of which will be played at the Brigade Sports Complex.
# GO NAVY #
