RICHMOND, Va. – In a tight battle on the road at Richmond (1-2), the Navy women's tennis team (2-2) dropped a narrow 5-2 decision on Saturday. The Midshipmen lost a trio of three-set matches and were a few points away from stealing the doubles point on the road against Richmond.
 
"In doubles, Richmond came out much faster than we did at the No. 1 and 2 spots," head coach Keith Puryear said. "At both spots, we fell behind early and had to fight to catch up and we were never able to do so at No. 1 doubles. Richmond did a great job of maintaining the momentum in that match. At No. 2, we did a great job to work our way back to 4-4, but lost a deuce game and could not hold on to extend things.
 
"The top four singles matches were wars. We came up a bit short in three sets at No. 1 and 2 against two very solid players. At one point last season, [Emily] Dunbar was ranked 18th in the region and [Kiana] Marshall just beat No. 25 Virginia's No. 4/5 player. Annalise played good ball to win in straight sets and Katreina rolled at No. 6 singles. We have good things to take from this match heading to tomorrow's match against Maryland."
 
The dual started in a back-and-forth battle with Richmond taking the first doubles match at No. 1, where Emily Dunbar and Kiana Marshall beat Catalina Rico (Sr., San Jose, Calif.) and Amanda Cyr (So., Cary, N.C.), 6-1. Navy evened up the race for the doubles point with Miranda Deng (So., North Potomac, Md.) and Tina Li (So., Wexford, Pa.) winning a 6-3 contest over Lyndell Giffenig and Helene Heiberg.
 
With the doubles point coming down to the No. 2 spot, the Midshipmen and Spiders continued to jockey for position with the score tied, 4-4. However, Richmond's pair of Lea Owens and Dessi Zlateva won two-straight games to outlast Aimee Dervishian (Jr., Milton, Ga.) and Danika Kahatapitiya (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.), 6-4. 
 
To start singles competition, the Spiders took a 2-0 lead after Kacey Moore (Fr., Wellington, Fla.) dropped a 6-4, 6-4 matchup at No. 5 singles to Heiberg. Annalise Klopfer (Fr., Palm Harbor, Fla.) got the Midshipmen on the board after winning a 6-4, 6-4 contest of her own at third-seeded singles against Zlateva. 
 
Despite pulling within a point, Navy was unable to keep the momentum going as Richmond won the next three matches to secure the victory. In a pair of three-set affairs, Owens won 7-5, 0-6, 6-1 at No. 4 singles over Meghana Komarraju (Fr., Vienna, Va.) and Dunbar edged Ansofi Wreder (Jr., Miami, Fla.), 6-2, 2-6, 6-1, to clinch the match for the Spiders.
 
With the match in hand and a 4-1 lead, Richmond won its third-straight, three-set match after Marshall beat Kaylah Hodge (Jr. Upper Marlboro, Md.) at No. 2, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3, to push the Spider lead to 5-1. In the final match of the night, Katreina Corpuz (Fr., Ewa Beach, Hawaii) earned the Mids' second point of the night with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Haynes at No. 6 singles as Navy suffered a 5-2 loss on the road.
 
The Midshipmen are back in action on Sunday at home against Maryland at 1 p.m. from the Tose Family Tennis Center.