ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's tennis team (9-4) split its doubleheader on Saturday with a 7-0 win over Howard (1-4), which was followed by a narrow 4-3 defeat to George Washington (3-1) at the Tose Family Tennis Center.
 
The Midshipmen stretched its winning streak to six after its second sweep in as many weeks following the win over the Bison. However, Navy saw its winning streak end at six and home winning streak snapped at 16 matches. The Midshipmen's last home loss came on March 10, 2018, against Marshall, 5-2.
 
Navy 7, Howard 0
 
To start the day, Navy rolled to the doubles point with a sweep of the three matches. Kacey Moore (Fr., Wellington, Fla.) and Brooke Bogdanovich (So., Suwannee, Ga.) notched the first win of the morning with a 6-1 win against Kendall Addison and Dominique Jackson at No. 3 doubles. 
 
The freshmen duo of Katreina Corpuz (Ewa Beach, Hawaii) and Meghana Komarraju (Vienna, Va.) sealed the doubles point at No. 2 after winning 6-2 against Yassmine Khiri and Aria Ragas. Tina Li (So., Wexford, Pa.) and Danika Kahatapitiya (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) completed the doubles sweep after winning a 6-2 contest at No. 1 doubles over Nicole Hutchison and Christina Joynes.
 
With the 1-0 lead, Komarraju got her second victory of the dual with a 6-0, 6-0 sweep against Addison at No. 3 singles. The Navy freshmen continued their strong performances in the dual after Moore grabbed a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles against Jackson.
 
Navy's clinching point was at the fifth-seeded singles match, where Li earned a 6-1, 6-1 win against Ragas. In the final three matches on the court, the Midshipmen did not drop a set to complete the 7-0 win. Kahatapitiya swept Joynes at No. 4, 6-1, 6-2, while Amanda Cyr (So., Cary, N.C.) won 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2 singles. Senior captain Catalina Rico (San Jose, Calif.) secured the sweep at No. 1 singles against Khiri, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
 
"In the first match today, we tried to make sure we came out with good energy from the start in both singles and doubles, which I thought we did a good job of doing," head coach Keith Puryear stated. "In a few of the matches we let things slip some, but fought hard and righted the ship."
 
George Washington 4, Navy 3
 
The second contest of the day for the Midshipmen carried a different tune as the first as Navy dropped the doubles point at home for the first time in its 10 home contests. The Midshipmen got out on the front foot after Kaylah Hodge (Jr., Upper Marlboro, Md.) and Miranda Deng (So., North Potomac, Md.) won 6-1 at No. 3 doubles against Victoria Kogan and Xenia De Luna.
 
However, the Colonials grabbed the doubles point after winning the final two doubles matches. At No. 2 doubles, the pair of Aimee Dervishian (Jr., Milton, Ga.) and Annalise Klopfer (Fr., Palm Harbor, Fla.) dropped their first match as a team, 6-2, to Sara Grubac and Katarin Marinkovikj. In a tightly contested match at No. 1, Maria Siopacha and Melis Bayraktaroglu outlasted Cyr and Rico in a narrow 7-5 decision.
 
George Washington doubled its lead to start singles competition with Marinkovikj sweeping Dervishian at No. 4 singles, 6-1, 6-1. The Midshipmen rallied to tie the overall match score at two after winning the next two singles matches in straight sets. Corpuz won 6-0, 6-2 against Kogan at No. 6 singles and Hodge earned a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Bayraktaroglu at second-seeded singles.
 
The back-and-forth contest continued with the Colonials winning the next two matches in three sets to clinch the win. At No. 3 singles, Grubac edged Klopfer, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, and at No. 1 singles, Ansofi Wreder (Jr., Miami, Fla.) was unable to complete the comeback against Siopacha in a 6-4, 0-6, 6-2 affair.
 
With the match in hand for George Washington, Deng made the final score 4-3 in favor of the Colonials after winning in straight sets against De Luna at No. 5 singles, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6).
 
"Our match against George Washington was a war," Puryear commented after the doubleheader. "We always seem to have tough matches with them and this one was no different. I am proud of how we fought back after losing the doubles point and the first set in three of the singles matches. In the end, George Washington was a bit more steady than us in the crucial moments of the match.
 
"Next week holds more challenges so we must take what we need from this to learn and move forward."
 
Navy continues its 12-match homestand next Sunday with a doubleheader against George Mason (10 a.m.) and Delaware (2 p.m.) from the Tose Family Tennis Center.