ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's tennis team (6-0) extended its season-opening win streak to six-straight matches with a doubleheader sweep of Georgetown (0-5) and Saint Joseph's (0-1) Saturday at the Tose Family Tennis Center.
Navy's six-match win streak now stands as the second-best start to a season in program history, trailing only the 2012 team that started the season with 11-straight wins and finished the year with a 20-3 overall record.
"We played good ball again today," said head coach
Keith Puryear. "Things that we've been focusing on are starting to be implemented successfully by the ladies."
Through their first six matches of the 2022 spring dual season, the Midshipmen have outscored their opponents 39-3 including having a 33-3 record as a team in singles and a 17-1 mark in doubles play.
Match One: Navy 6, Georgetown 1
Following its first doubles loss of the season at the No. 1 position, Navy rallied to earn victories at the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to secure an early 1-0 lead that it wouldn't relinquish in a 6-1 win over Georgetown.
Doubles play against Hoyas opened with the pairing of Olivia Ashton and Morgan Coburn downing the Mids No. 1 doubles team of
Kacey Moore (Sr., Wellington, Fla.) and
Jillian Taggart (Jr., Fair Oaks, Calif.) (6-2) to gain the early advantage in doubles competition. However, the advantage would be short lived as
Meghana Komarraju (Sr., Vienna, Va.) and
Katreina Corpuz (Sr., Ewa Beach, Hawai'i) picked up the win (6-4) over Chloe Bendetti and Nadine Del Carmen at the No. 2 position.
The Midshipmen secured the doubles point and took a 1-0 lead when the No. 3 doubles pairing of
Stella Ribaudo (So., Chicago, Ill.) and
Emily Tannenbaum (Fr., Commack, N.Y.) defeated Georgetown's Agata Mikos and Avantika Willy (6-3).
In singles competition, Navy turned in a dominant effort that included winning five of the six matches in straight sets. Taggart made quick work of the No. 1 singles position, downing Willy (6-2, 6-0) to extend the Mids advantage to 2-0 over the Hoyas.
The advantage would quickly turn to 3-0 as Tannenbaum netted a straight-set victory at the No. 2 spot against Bendetti (6-0, 6-3) prior to Moore securing the fourth and deciding point for the Midshipmen at the No. 3 singles over Mikos (6-3, 6-2).
With victory over Georgetown secured, Ribaudo downed the Hoyas' Del Carmen (6-2, 6-4) at the No. 6 singles, just before Corpuz dropped a three-set battle against Ashton at the No. 4 singles (6-3, 1-6, 10-2) to put Georgetown on the board at 5-1.
The final win of the match for the Mids would come at the No. 5 singles as Komarraju defeated Coburn in straight sets (6-3, 6-4) to finalize the 6-1 victory over Georgetown to open play on Saturday.
Match Two: Navy 7, Saint Joseph's 0
In its second match of Saturday's twin bill, Navy used a strong effort in doubles play coupled with five straight-set victories in singles competition to secure a 7-0 victory and complete a sweep of Saturday's twin bill.
Sylvia Eklund (Fr., Bellevue, Wash.) and
Kate Lee (Fr., Concord, Calif.) opened doubles play with a 6-1 victory over the Hawks' pairing of Ireland and Sophia Amato (6-1) at the No. 3 position. Just minutes later, the doubles point was secured in favor of the Midshipmen as
Casey Accola (Jr., Winter Garden, Fla.) and
Corinne Farid (So., Columbia, Mo.) combined to defeat Saint Joseph's Emily Elliot and Stow Weiss (6-1).
With the early 1-0 lead in hand, Navy ended doubles competition with a win at the No.1 position as Ribaudo and
Parvathi Shanker (Fr., Napa, Calif.) tallied a hard-fought win over Anna Kirk and Amanda Nava (6-4) to complete the sweep of the doubles circuit for the Mids.
In singles play, Eklund brought the Midshipmen advantage to 2-0 as she earned a straight-set victory (6-2, 6-2) over Fabiana Tort-Umpierre at the No. 5 singles. Lee matched the effort of Eklund with a straight-set win of her own at the No. 6 singles position over Sophia Amato (6-4, 6-2) to put Navy up over Saint Joseph's, 3-0.
At the No. 2 singles, Accola turned in a straight-set effort against Stow Weiss (6-3, 6-3) to secure the match-clinching fourth point prior to Tannenbaum earning her second victory of the day, playing at the No. 1 singles, against Nava (6-4, 6-2).
With the match victory in hand, Farid extended the Navy advantage to 6-0 with a victory over Kirk (6-4, 7-6) prior to Shanker bouncing back from a second-set loss at the No. 3 singles to win in three frames (6-4, 5-7, 10-2) and secure the 7-0 win for the Midshipmen over Saint Joseph's.
UP NEXT
Navy will return to action Feb. 12 as it concludes its season-opening, seven-game homestand with a match against George Washington hosted at the Tose Family Tennis Center.
