BOSTON, Mass. – The Navy women's tennis team (21-5, 4-1 Patriot League) rallied from a match down to win the doubles point, but ultimately dropped five of the six singles contests in a 5-2 loss to Boston University (12-7, 5-0 Patriot League) Saturday at the Winchester Indoor Tennis Club. The Mids will now await the announcement of their seeding for the 2022 Patriot League Tournament, which is scheduled to be held April 21-24 in Bethlehem, Pa.
 
The Terriers opened play on Saturday by taking the first decision in the doubles competition, as Kaitlin Tan and Shelly Yaloz combined to defeat Katreina Corpuz (Sr., Ewa Beach, Hawai'i) and Meghana Komarraju (Sr., Vienna, Va.) to take a one-match advantage (6-3) in chase of an early one-point lead.  
 
However, the Navy duo of Kacey Moore (Sr., Wellington, Fla.) and Jillian Taggart (Jr., Fair Oaks, Calif.) battled to earn victory over Erica Di Battista and Emily Kim (7-6 [8-6]) at the No. 2 doubles. The pairing once trailed 4-2 in the set but battled to ultimately earn a victory with the deciding tiebreak point.
 
With the two sides even at one match apiece, the doubles point would be decided in the No. 3 match that featured the Midshipmen pairing of Casey Accola (Jr., Winter Garden, Fla.) and Emily Tannenbaum (Fr., Commack, N.Y.) squaring off against BU's Victoria Carlsten and Sydney Sharma.
 
Accola and Tannenbaum earned a hard-fought win (7-5) over Carlsten and Sharma in the contest, including fending off a rally by the Terrier duo that included winning three-straight points to tie the set at 5-5.
 
"We did a great job in the fight for the doubles point," said head coach Keith Puryear. "Jill (Taggart) and Kacey (Moore) fought back from a break down to win a tiebreak, capturing the first point needed. Casey (Accola) and Emily (Tannenbaum) played at the three, serving for the point a 5-2 and 5-4, both times BU played tough tennis to break and then hold. We then did a good job of keeping our resolve to break back, then played a solid service game to hold for the doubles point."
 
Boston University, trailing 1-0 following doubles competition, quickly evened the score with a victory at the No. 1 singles as Carlsten defeated Taggart in straight sets (6-0-6-1). The Terriers' Michelle Kleynerman earned a straight-set decision of her own at the No. 4 position over Komarraju (6-0, 6-1) that gave BU its first lead of the day at 2-1.
 
Tannenbaum brought the contest to its second tie of the day at the No. 2 singles, downing Tan in straight sets (6-3, 6-3) to even the score at 2-2. However, Boston University would go back in front of the Midshipmen as Sharma defeated Stella Ribaudo (So., Chicago, Ill.) (6-0, 6-4), prior to Moore falling to Di Battista in a straight-set decision at the No. 3 singles (6-3, 6-4) that secured the fourth and deciding point for BU.
 
The final contest of the day to be decided was the No. 5 singles, as Corpuz fell to Yaloz (6-4, 6-3) to finalize the 5-2 decision in favor of the Terriers.
 
"BU did a good job of flipping the momentum of the match immediately to start singles, and to be truthful, we never truly recovered," remarked Puryear on the Mids' effort in singles. "We needed to do a better job in this area. Our play at times was a bit up and down in singles, in each match there were certain things we really needed to do to be effective and we didn't do them enough to capitalize consistently. We need to take the feedback we've been given to prepare for the challenge of the Patriot League Championship next weekend."
 
UP NEXT
Pending its seeding in the Patriot League Tournament Field, Navy will either return to action April 21 for the first round of the tournament or April 22 for a quarterfinal match.