ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Navy women's tennis (9-2) hits the road for the first time in its spring season to start its weekend as the Midshipmen travel to George Washington (3-3) for a 1 p.m. match on Saturday in Washington, D.C. Navy returns home on Sunday to host a doubleheader against George Mason (3-2) and Delaware (4-0) starting at 10 a.m. inside the Tose Family Tennis Center.
The Midshipmen come into the weekend with a 9-2 mark after winning a pair of 7-0 matches last Saturday against Howard and Mount St. Mary's. The two wins last week for Navy pushed its winning streak to four matches. Along with picking up two wins last weekend,
Samantha Choi was named the Patriot League Women's Tennis Player of the Week after going 2-0 with a singles win and a doubles victory. This also marks the second-straight week that the Midshipmen have had the player of the week in the league after
Annalise Klopfer earned the award on Feb. 11.
Throughout the first 11 matches of the spring season, Navy has posted a record of 57-9 in singles matches to go along with a 26-7 doubles mark. Klopfer has a team-best six singles wins in dual competition this spring and is 6-0 since the start of 2020. Overall, the freshmen pair of
Jillian Taggart and Choi lead the team in singles wins at 15 and 14, respectively.
Klopfer has also partnered with
Aimee Dervishian in doubles competition for a 5-1 record in duals with the five wins leading the Midshipmen. Choi and
Tina Li are 4-0 this spring in duals and the pair is 9-3 overall during the year. Navy's pair of
Katreina Corpuz and
Meghana Komarraju have a team-best 12 doubles wins coming into this weekend's matches.
George Washington is 3-3 on the year and it picked up a 7-0 win over George Mason during its last match. The Colonials snapped a two-match skid with their win last weekend and they also moved to 2-0 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Against the Patriots, George Washington only dropped two sets with a 6-1 loss at No. 2 doubles and then at No. 5 singles, Sarah Bodewes was forced to win a third-set tiebreaker.
Last season, the Colonials edged out Navy in Annapolis in a 4-3 contest. Earlier this fall, both George Washington and Navy competed in West Virginia's Martha Thorn Invitational were the Colonials were 6-3 against the Midshipmen in singles while each team won two doubles matches against each other.
After falling to George Washington last time out, George Mason is now 3-2 on the year and it has gone 1-2 since the turn of the calendar year. Ashley Fitz-Patrick and Paige La have guided the Patriots in singles competition this season with records of 12-1 and 11-1 overall. In doubles, La has partnered with Hannah Yang for a team-best 9-2 mark.
In the dual match between Navy and George Mason during the spring of 2019, the Midshipmen rolled to a 6-1 win over the Patriots. At the Navy Blue & Gold Invitational this fall, Navy was 4-2 against George Mason in singles and 1-1 in doubles.
Delaware remains unbeaten on its spring slate coming into the match on Sunday as the Blue Hens have won their first four matches of 2020. Delaware has been away from competition for two weeks after both of its matches last week were postponed. Caragh Courtney leads the way for the Blue Hens with a record of 13-8 in singles competition. In doubles, Eliza Askarova has a team-leading eight wins, which includes a 6-1 record when paired with Sarah Whited.
Navy edged Delaware in its meeting last season in a 4-3 decision. The Midshipmen won two of the three doubles matches and then earned three victories from then freshmen, Corpuz, Komarraju and
Kacey Moore to seal the win.
Following Navy's three matches this weekend, it will host Johns Hopkins and Drexel next Saturday for its final home doubleheader of the season.
