ORLANDO, Fla. – Singles wins from each of its top-3 singles players helped the Navy women's tennis team (8-2) overcome an early hole, defeating rival service academy Air Force (2-5) by a 4-2 score as part of USTA College MatchDay on Saturday night at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.
 
Marking the first-ever meeting between the two programs, Navy's win on Saturday extended its winning streak to eight games, the longest win streak by the Midshipmen since an 11-match run during the 2020 season.
 
"We did it the hard way today, but credit goes out to Air Force and coach Kim Gidley," said head coach Keith Puryear. "They brought it and it was a great battle, I hope everyone at home enjoyed it."
 
The Falcons got the early jump on scoring, as Abby Cotuna and Isabella Flodin paired up at the No. 2 doubles spot to defeat the Navy duo of senior captain Casey Accola and freshman Sia Chaudry, 6-4.
 
Their Air Force teammates, Andrea Le and Courtney Swift, partnered for another 6-4 win over the No. 3 Navy pairing of junior Stella Ribaudo and sophomore Parvathi Shanker, handing the Falcons the doubles point and a 1-0 lead.
 
Air Force opened the lead to 2-0 when Swift grabbed a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Accola on the No. 4 singles court, but Shanker answered a minute later when she finished off a 6-3, 6-4 win at the No. 5 position against Le.
 
Navy tied the match at 2-2 when Ribaudo fought her way back after dropping the opening set, as the No. 2 Navy player notched a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Alexis Odom.
 
The Mids took their first lead of the night a short time later, as Emily Tannenbaum cruised to a first-set win, nearly rallied in the second set and put away Sydney Fitch in the third set on the way to a 7-1, 5-7, 6-2 final on the top singles court.
 
On the verge of sealing the victory, Navy held third-set leads on both the No. 2 court in Chaudry over Flodin and the No. 6 spot in sophomore Sylvia Eklund over Arianna Van Houweling, as Chaudry was able to edge out Flodin in a 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 battle that clinched the Navy win, letting the Mids' celebration begin.
 
"Sia has done an unbelievable job for us this year, she just continues to grow with each and every match," added Puryear. "I was pretty comfortable and confident knowing she had the goods to close it out, and that's what she did. The evening was a little nerve-wrecking to be honest, but it was good to finally have a chance to compete against them. Kim and I are really good friends and we've talked about it for years, and we want to thank everybody that made this happen at the USTA and everyone else at Navy. It was gratifying that we could come here and represent the Academy the way it needs to be represented, the way it should be represented and to go home with the win."
 
Shanker's singles victory extended her personal winning streak to a team-high seven matches, while Chaudry and Tannenbaum are both now on six-match win streaks following Saturday.
 
The Mids are now 41-17 all-time in neutral-site matches.
 
Up Next
Navy stays on the road to start next weekend, heading to Liberty on Feb. 25 for a 9 a.m. match, before coming home the next day, Feb. 26, to face Howard at 10 a.m. in the Tose Family Tennis Center.