WEST POINT, N.Y. – Earning itself another showdown with third-seeded rival Army, the No. 2-seed Navy women's tennis team (19-5) advanced past the quarterfinal round of the 2023 Patriot League Championship with a 4-0 victory over No. 7 Loyola (9-15) on Friday afternoon at the Lichtenberg Tennis Center in West Point, N.Y.
Setting up a rematch against the Black Knights at 2 p.m. in Saturday's semifinal round, the Midshipmen used the doubles point and a trio of singles wins to beat the Greyhounds and put themselves in the league semifinals for the 13th time in 13 trips to the PL postseason.
Navy had to battle back to claim the doubles point, as Loyola opened the afternoon with a 6-1 win by Christine Richiez and Lauren Manwiller at the No. 2 court over the Mids' senior captain
Casey Accola and freshman
Sia Chaudry.
The sophomore duo of
Kate Lee and
Parvathi Shanker brought the doubles point back within reach when they knocked off the third Loyola pairing of Olivia Tracey and Liza Tankimovich by a 6-1 score, and the top Navy team of sophomore
Emily Tannenbaum and junior
Samantha Johns clinched the opening point for the Mids when they beat the Greyhounds' Taylor Kuncl and Emi Shivkumar.
Lee helped increase the Navy lead when she finished off Madison Metzdorf on the No. 6 singles court in a 6-0, 6-1 win, while Johns tallied a 6-1, 6-0 victory against Shivkumar in the No. 5 position to put the Mids on the verge of clinching the match. In what has become a common occurrence, the clinching point would go to Chaudry at the No. 3 spot, as the rookie defeated Richiez by a 6-0, 6-1 score to send Navy off to the semifinals.
Leaving the other three singles matches unfinished, Tannenbaum held a 6-1, 4-3 lead over Tracey on the top court before play was abandoned, while Accola was leading Tankimovich, 6-3, 3-0, at No. 4 singles. In her first action since April 7, junior
Stella Ribaudo was battling back from a first set to Manwiller in the No. 2 spot, 3-6, 4-2, when the match was abandoned.
Match Notes
• Navy is now 15-0 in its all-time series with Loyola, going 3-0 against the Greyhounds in the postseason.
• Johns and Tannenbaum are the first Navy pairing to reach 10 wins this season.
• Chaudry's 24 singles wins on the campaign puts her tied for sixth in single-season program history.
• Lee is now 6-0 in the No. 6 singles spot this season.
• Chaudry and Tannenbaum's 15 dual-match singles wins this season puts them tied for seventh in the program's single-season record books.
Up Next
No. 2 Navy plays No. 3 Army in the second semifinal match on Saturday at 2 p.m., with the winner playing the winner of Saturday's first semifinal between No. 1 Boston and No. 4 Bucknell. Army defeated No. 6 Lehigh by a 4-0 score in the quarterfinal match directly before the Navy-Loyola contest. Navy is 7-12 all-time against Army, going 2-7 against the Black Knights in the postseason, but the Mids pulled off the 4-3 win over Army in the 2023 Star Match back on April 1.
