ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's tennis team (10-1) won its third-straight match, along with being its 10th victory in 11 dual competitions, in a 7-0 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson (2-4) Sunday at the Tose Family Tennis Center. The Mids won each of the six singles matches in straight sets, along with recording victories in two of the three singles matches against FDU.
With the sweep of singles competition against the Knights, Navy improved to an outstanding 55-11 as a team in singles this dual season. Additionally,
Emily Tannenbaum (Fr., Commack, N.Y.) totaled her team leading 17th singles win of the season, while team captain
Meghana Komarraju (Sr., Viena, Va.) extended her win streak in singles play to seven straight matches, a team-best mark.
With its victory on Sunday and improving to 10-1 this dual season, Navy has tallied at least 10 wins through its first 11 matches three times in program history (2012, 2020 and 2022).
"This FDU team is one that will compete for their conference championship, so we knew we would be pushed today," said head coach
Keith Puryear. "The coaching staff can see the team progressing with each match. I think the ladies have done a great job of trusting us and being willing to implement things that we stress in their matches. We must continue to stay process oriented in terms of goals we've set for the season."
The Midshipmen opened the contest against Fairleigh Dickinson by winning two of the three contests to secure the doubles point and take a 1-0 lead. The pairing of Komarraju and Tannenbaum made quick work of the No. 1 doubles match, defeating the FDU pairing of Marta Bettinelli and Amina Lasheen (6-0).
Following the victory at the No. 1 spot by Komarraju and Tannenbaum,
Sylvia Eklund (Fr., Bellevue, Wash.) and
Kate Lee (Fr., Concord, Calif.) earned victory over Gauri Bhagia and Aleksandra Vorozheikina at the No. 3 position (6-3) to secure the doubles point for the Mids.
The lone victory of the day for Fairleigh Dickinson came in the No. 2 doubles match, as Namie Isago and Alena Kubanova downed the Navy pairing of
Corinne Farid (So., Columbia, Mo.) and
Parvathi Shanker (Fr., Napa, Calif.) (6-4).
With the early 1-0 lead in hand heading into singles competition,
Casey Accola (Jr., Winter Garden, Fla.) extended the Midshipmen advantage to 2-0 with a straight-set victory over Aishwarya Gandotra (6-1, 6-0) followed just moments later by Tannenbaum defeating Bhagia in the No. 2 singles match (6-2, 6-0) to put Navy just one-point shy of match victory.
The Mids clinched their third-straight win and its 10th victory of the season as
Stella Ribaudo (So., Chicago, Ill.) downed Isago at the No. 4 position (6-3, 6-0) to secure the fourth and deciding point, prior to Komarraju defeating Bettinelli in the No. 5 singles match (6-3, 6-1) to push the Navy lead to 5-0.
Jillian Taggart (Jr., Fair Oaks, Calif.) tallied her 15th singles victory of the 2021-22 season in the No. 1 match, defeating Kubanova in straight sets (6-4, 6-2) followed by
Kacey Moore (Sr., Wellington, Fla.) securing a sweep of singles competition for Navy with a victory over Lasheen (6-1, 6-4) in the No. 2 singles contest.
UP NEXT
The Midshipmen are slated to return to play March 5 as they welcome Drexel to the Tose Family Tennis Center for an 11 a.m. match. Following their contest against the Dragons, the Mids will travel to take on Towson in their second match of the day at 6 p.m.
