ANNAPOLIS, Md. – In its first match in 28 days, Navy women's tennis (2-1) closed out its non-conference slate with a 4-3 loss at home to Richmond (4-3) on Sunday afternoon at the Tose Family Tennis Center.
 
"Today was a good, hard-fought match," head coach Keith Puryear said. "We expected a battle against Richmond, as we always have one when we play. It was good to get out to compete and see where we are. This match gave us some much-needed feedback that we can use going forward."
 
For the first time in the early portion of the season, the Midshipmen fell behind early after dropping the doubles point. The duo of Emily Dunbar and Dessi Zlateva earned a 6-1 decision at No. 1 doubles over Miranda Deng (Sr., North Potomac, Md.) and Jillian Taggart (So., Fair Oaks, Calif.). Then at the No. 2 spot, the Spiders clinched the doubles point with Andrea Campodonico and Sara Salemyr beating Katreina Corpuz (Jr., Ewa Beach, Hawaii) and Meghana Komarraju (Jr., Vienna, Va.), 6-1.
 
Navy's freshmen pair of Corinne Farid (Columbia, Mo.) and Samantha Johns (Simpsonville, S.C.) staved off the sweep in doubles for the Midshipmen after picking a 6-3 win at No. 3 over Carly Cohen and Adrienne Haynes.
 
Deng evened the match at one point each after she started the singles portion of the match with a 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 4 singles against Cohen. The Spiders bounced back with back-to-back wins at No. 1 and No. 3 singles to move just one point away from victory. At the No. 1 spot, Zlateva beat Taggart in a narrow 6-4, 6-4 decision and then Campodonico edged out Komarraju at No. 3, 7-5, 6-1. Johns earned her second win of the afternoon to bring the Midshipmen back within a point after sweeping Haynes at No. 6 singles, 7-5, 6-2.
 
With the score sitting at 3-2 in favor of Richmond, the final two matches went into three sets. After winning the opening set at No. 5 singles Corpuz was unable to close out the win against Polina Shitkova as Shitkova went on to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 to clinch the win for the Spiders. At No. 2 singles, Kacey Moore (Jr., Wellington, Fla.) fell behind early against Dunbar but rallied to win in three sets, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-4, but Richmond won the match, 4-3.
 
Navy is now set to play its final five matches of the regular season away from home, which starts on Saturday against Army in the annual Star Match. Competition is set to begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning from West Point, N.Y.