ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's tennis team (11-5) suffered a 7-0 loss to 48th-ranked Princeton (8-3) on Friday afternoon as the Midshipmen started a three-match in a two-day stretch at the Tose Family Tennis Center.
 
Friday's match was the first-time all-season Navy faced off against a top-50 team in the ITA national rankings.
 
"In doubles, I thought we put ourselves in a pretty good spot," head coach Keith Puryear said after the match. "Aimee [Dervishian] and Annalise [Klopfer] played lights out doubles at No. 3. We had opportunities at No. 2 we were up 5-3 and to Princeton's credit they stepped it up and got more aggressive. We still had some opportunities and we let them slip away and that is something that is a little bit frustrating, but I think it is something that we will learn from. 
 
"Overall, I do not think the scores indicated the level of competitiveness in the match. We had our chances and had some opportunities, but when you play a team like Princeton the opportunities are going to be fleeting. If you do not take care of things on your end the opportunities can go away and sometimes they do not come around a second time. That was the gist of the match and it is something we have to take and learn from and to continue to move forward and get ready for tomorrow's matches and beyond."
 
In a hotly contested race for the doubles point, Navy got out to a fast start. Aimee Dervishian (Jr., Milton, Ga.) and Annalise Klopfer (Fr., Palm Harbor, Fla.) grabbed a 6-2 win at No. 3 doubles over Tiffany Chen and Brianna Shvets. 
 
Princeton started to turn the momentum with a victory at No. 1 doubles. Grace Joyce and Clare McKee defeated Amanda Cyr (So., Cary, N.C.) and Catalina Rico (Sr., San Jose, Calif.) in a 6-2 contest. 
 
The final doubles match on the court at No. 2 went back-and-forth to determine the winner of the doubles point. Navy's pair of Miranda Deng (So., North Potomac, Md.) and Kaylah Hodge (Jr., Upper Marlboro, Md.) were ahead 5-2 in their match against Nathalie Rodilosso and Stephanie Schrage. However, Princeton came roaring back to grab a 6-5 lead in the match. After the Midshipmen tied the match a six to send it into a tiebreaker, the Tigers rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the tiebreaker, 7-4, and the match, 7-6 (7-4), to grab the doubles point and the 1-0 lead.
 
Princeton carried over the momentum from its doubles victory into singles and won all six matches. At No. 6 singles, Rodilosso beat Cyr, 6-2, 6-1 and then the Tigers grabbed a 3-0 lead in the match with Schrage's win at No. 1 singles over Ansofi Wreder (Jr., Miami, Fla.), 6-0, 6-1.
 
Joyce clinched the match at the No. 4 spot after beating Rico, 6-0, 6-3 to push the Princeton lead to 4-0. With the match in hand, McKee defeated Deng in a 6-4, 6-0 contest at No. 3 singles and Hodge just missed forcing a third set after falling at No. 2 singles to Shvets, 6-1, 6-4. In the final match left on the court, Dervishian dropped the first set, 6-3, but rebounded to win Navy's first singles set of the day, 6-4, against Chen. In a tiebreaking third set at No. 5 singles, Dervishian was unable to post Navy's first point after losing the tiebreaker, 1-0 (10-5), and the Midshipmen dropped the match, 7-0
 
Navy is back in action on Saturday with two more home matches to finish out their homestand. Navy faces Seton Hall at 10 a.m. and then takes on Johns Hopkins at 2 p.m. inside the Tose Family Tennis Center.