UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Navy women's tennis team lost its 2019 spring season opener to Penn State (1-0), 7-0, on Sunday afternoon at the Penn State Indoor Tennis Courts.
The Midshipmen (0-1) fell behind early and were unable to rebound as they suffered their first sweep since last January against Old Dominion on the road.
"It was good to get in our first match of the season," head coach
Keith Puryear said. "Penn State is a good team and we knew we would be tested. Doubles was tight, but we fell behind early on all three courts. However, we did a great job fighting back at [doubles] No. 1 and 2, but in the end, fell short.
"Singles followed the same scenario where we fell behind and then did a good job competing to try and work our way back. We had many good takeaways from today's match for our continued improvement."
Penn State got off to the early lead after sweeping the three doubles contests to earn the doubles point. Navy's pair of
Ansofi Wreder (Jr., Miami, Fla.) and
Miranda Deng (So., North Potomac, Md.) lost at No. 3 doubles to Shannon Hanley and Samantha Smith, 6-1.
The Midshipmen tried to rally in the final two doubles matches but lost in tight decisions. At No. 2 doubles,
Aimee Dervishian (Jr., Milton, Ga.) and
Kaylah Hodge (Jr., Upper Marlboro, Md.) dropped a narrow 6-4 contest after Chelsea Sawyer and Frederikke Savarre, who won the final two games to break a four-all tie and win to clinch the doubles point.
Catalina Rico (Sr., San Jose, Calif.) and
Amanda Cyr (So., Cary, N.C.) tried to earn Navy's first victory of the day at No. 1 doubles but suffered a 7-5 loss to Gabby O'Gorman and Olivia Rohrbacher.
With a 1-0 lead, the Nittany Lions were able to jump ahead 2-0 after Wreder retired at No. 1 singles trailing 4-2 in the first set against O'Gorman. Smith pushed Penn State ahead by three points with a straight-set victory at No. 3 singles with a 6-0, 6-3 victory against Rico.
Penn State clinched the match with a 6-1, 7-5 win at No. 4 singles after Rohrbacher outlasted Dervishian.
With three singles matches remaining and the match in hand, Navy was unable to grab a victory. Hodge suffered a 6-3, 6-4 set back to Sawyer at No. 2 singles and Cyr lost a 6-1, 6-4 contest to Hanley at No. 6 singles. Deng earned the Midshipmen's lone set victory at No. 5 singles after she won the second set against Svarre, but lost the match in the third set, 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-4).
Following Sunday's cancelation against Drexel, the Midshipmen will now host St. Bonaventure and St. Francis this coming Saturday to open their home slate. Navy hosts St. Bonaventure at 9 a.m. and St. Francis at 2 p.m. at the Tose Family Tennis Center.
