ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's tennis team (20-3, 3-0 Patriot League) swept Howard (8-4, 5-0 MEAC) in doubles, prior to taking five of the six singles competitions, en route to a 6-1 victory over the Bison Saturday at the Fluegel-Moore Tennis Stadium.
 
With the win, the Midshipmen extended their current win streak to four-straight matches and secured their ninth 20-win season in program history, along with tallying their 16th home win of the year. Navy finishes the home portion of its 2022 spring dual season with a 16-1 record, equaling a .941-win percentage which ties the best such mark for home win percentage in program history.
 
In the individual career rankings, Kacey Moore (Sr., Wellington, Fla.) moved into sole possession of fourth place on the Midshipmen's all-time singles wins list (69). The singles win also marked the 117th combined victory over the senior's career, the sixth-most in team history. Additionally, Emily Tannenbaum (Fr., Commack, N.Y.) moved into a tie for the fifth-most combined wins for a single season at 42.

"Today was a celebration of our soon to graduate senior class," said head coach Keith Puryear. "Thank you to all the parents, family and friends who came out to celebrate them and watch us compete. Special thanks to Chet and Kathy Gladchuk for attending as well. Meghana (Komarraju), Katreina (Corpuz) and Kacey (Moore) have been a joy to coach. They've been leaders since the moment they joined this team. It was an honor to have a chance to thank them.

"Howard was a team that was on a roll, having won six-straight matches before ours, so we knew they would be brimming with confidence and we needed to be ready to compete. It was an emotional day, so while I loved our grit and fight, at times our execution was patchy in some matches. Jill (Taggart) showed great fight to come back after losing a tough first set, coming back to win the second, then losing in a breaker. Emily (Tannenbaum) did the same, lost the first, but was able to secure the breaker. Sylvia (Eklund), Kacey (Moore), Kate (Lee) and Casey (Accola) all did a good job to capture their matches in straight sets." 

The victory marked the 696th of Puryear's career, who now sits just four wins shy of 700 for his career. The Midshipmen have three regular-season matches remaining, prior to a possible three contests in the upcoming Patriot League Tournament.
 
Navy opened competition on Saturday with the pairing of Corinne Farid (So., Columbia, Mo.) and Parvathi Shanker (Fr., Napa, Calif.) earning a victory at the No. 3 doubles (6-1) over Howard's Hana El Sherif and Oluwayemisi Ifederu, putting the Mids on the brink of taking the doubles point.
 
An early one-point advantage would be secured for the Midshipmen at the No. 2 position, as Samantha Johns (So., Simpsonville, S.C.) and Stella Ribaudo (So., Chicago, Ill.) defeated Kendall Addison and Alexandra Blackwell (6-3).
 
The No. 1 team of Katreina Corpuz (Sr., Ewa Beach, Hawai'i) and Meghana Komarraju (Sr., Vienna, Va.) cemented the sweep of doubles play for Navy just moments later, as the senior pairing downed Sifa Butcher and Jordan Grayson in a hard-fought, two-point decision (7-5).

"It was great to see Meghana (Komarraju) and Kat (Corpuz) win a hard-fought match at No. 1," said Puryear of his senior duo. "Sam (Johns) and Stella (Ribaudo) did a very good job against a very offensive-minded team at No. 2, while Corinne (Farid) and Parvathi (Shanker) did a great job of grabbing the lead and staying with their patterns to prevent the Howard team from grabbing the momentum back from them." 
 
With the early 1-0 lead in hand, Sylvia Eklund (Fr., Bellevue, Wash.) would quickly expand the Midshipmen advantage to two points with a straight-set victory at the No. 4 singles (6-2, 6-2) over Blackwell. Moore would follow Eklund quickly with a straight-set decision of her own in the No. 3 match (6-1, 6-1) against Ifederu to put Navy on the brink of match victory.
 
The contest would be secured in favor of the Mids at the No. 6 singles, as Kate Lee (Fr., Concord, Calif.) extended her singles winning streak to nine-straight matches with a victory over Kendall Addison (6-3, 6-4).
 
Following the match-clinching point by Lee, Casey Accola (Jr., Winter Garden, Fla.) defeated El Sherif (6-4, 6-2) at the No. 5 position to extend the Midshipmen lead to 5-0.
 
In a three-set battle at the No. 2 singles, Tannenbaum came away victorious against Butcher (6-2, 3-6, 10-5) after erasing a 4-4 tie in the third and final set by winning six-straight points. The lone win of the day for the Bison would come in the No. 1 match, as Jordan Grayson downed Jillian Taggart (Jr., Fair Oaks, Calif.) in three sets (7-6, 4-6, 10-7).
 
Prior to Saturday's victory, Navy honored its three-member senior class and celebrated the careers of Corpuz, Komarraju and Moore in a pre-match ceremony.
 
UP NEXT
Navy will return to action 11 a.m. Sunday as it completes a home-and-home series with No. 33 Old Dominion in Norfolk. In the first meeting between the two programs this season, the Monarchs picked up a 5-2 victory in Annapolis.