ANNAPOLIS, Md. – After being away from competition during the fall season, Navy women's tennis (0-0) begins its 2021 season on Saturday morning against George Mason (0-0) at the Tose Family Tennis Center at 10:30 a.m. No fans are allowed to attend the competition.
Following the shortened 2020 spring season and no fall competition, the Midshipmen come into the season after being away from competition for 338 days dating back to their last match against Lees-McRae on March 11, 2020, in Orlando, Fla.
During the 2019-20 season, Navy finished the year with a record of 17-4. The Midshipmen had one of their best starts in school history last season as they went 14-2 over the first 16 contests, which was the program's best start since the 2012 campaign.
As a team, Navy posted a record of 185-94 in singles competition while going 94-40 in doubles competition. In duals, the Midshipmen won singles matches at a .797 percent clip and had a .787 doubles winning percentage. Jillian Taggart returns for her sophomore campaign after leading Navy with 18 singles wins and 17 doubles wins. During her freshman season, Taggart compiled an 18-6 mark in singles and was 17-5 in doubles while going 3-0 at all three doubles spots during the spring season.
Including Taggart, the Midshipmen return six players that recorded double-digit singles and doubles wins a year ago. The quartet of Katreina Corpuz, Miranda Deng, Meghana Komarraju and Tina Li each surpassed the 15-win mark in doubles action with the duo of Corpuz and Komarraju leading all doubles teams with 15 wins.
In singles matches, Kacey Moore was just behind Taggart's 18-win mark with a record of 16-12 and she played at the top three singles positions last spring. Corpuz was the final returning Midshipmen to reach 15 singles win as she notched a 15-5 record as a sophomore, which was sparked by a 7-2 mark in duals.
George Mason finished 2020 with a 5-5 record overall and went 0-2 in Atlantic 10 Conference matches. The Patriots return their top doubles pair in Paige La and Hannah Yang. The pair finished with an 11-6 record but only went 2-4 in the spring. However, in singles, La finished with a team-leading 13-6 record and was 4-2 playing at the No. 1 singles spot. Ashley Fitz-Patrick was the only other player for George Mason to reach double-digit wins after going 12-4 overall last season.
Navy and George Mason met last February in Annapolis with the Midshipmen posting a 7-0 shutout over the Patriots. Navy won all three doubles matches and then swept each of the singles matches. In the all-time series, the Midshipmen have won all 10 head-to-head contests against George Mason.
After Navy's season opener this weekend, it will continue a six-match homestand to start the year next Saturday against George Washington at 10 a.m. at the Tose Family Tennis Center.
