ANNAPOLIS, Md. – With junior
Emily Tannenbaum inching closer to another program record, the Navy women's tennis team (13-4) moved its winning streak to three matches with a 5-2 victory over Georgetown (4-8) Thursday afternoon at the Tose Family Tennis Center.
Highlighted by Tannenbaum extending her singles win streak to 13 straight contests, a mark that sits tied for second in program history, the Midshipmen closed their five-match homestand with a 4-1 record and improved to 13-1 at home this season.
In what turned out to be a close doubles battle, Navy took the early edge when senior
Samantha Johns and freshman
Julia Lee posted a 6-1 victory in the No. 3 spot over Morgan Coburn and Ashley Kennedy, but the top Hoya pairing of Chloe Bendetti and Katie Garofolo-Ro responded by defeating Tannenbaum and rookie
Olivia Fermo, 6-3. Coming down to the No. 2 court, the junior duo of
Kate Lee and
Parvathi Shanker gritted out a 7-5 win against Paige Gilbert and Emily Novikov to hand Navy the doubles point.
Johns then scored the first singles win of the day when she beat Garofolo-Ro, 6-1, 6-1, in the No. 2 position. A pair of freshmen then clinched the Navy victory, as No. 5 player
Makaila Cheng knocked off Kennedy by a 6-4, 6-1 score, while
Anna Jordaan held down the No. 4 spot with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Coburn.
Adding on was Tannenbaum, as the reigning back-to-back Patriot League Player of the Week pulled off a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Bendetti in the No. 1 singles match. GU did prevent the shutout, as Gilbert upended junior
Sylvia Eklund, 7-5, 4-6, 11-9, on the sixth court and Novikov outlasted Shanker at No. 3 singles in a three-set battle that saw the first two sets go to a tiebreaker, with Novikov winning by a 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (3-7), 10-2 score.
Coach Keith Puryear Comments
"Congratulations to the ladies, today was a great team win. Georgetown is a talented team, so we needed to be ready. Sam and Julia did a great job of getting us on the board in doubles, and Parv and Kate followed with a come-from-behind win to get us the doubles point. We then played good ball across the board in singles. While Parv and Sylvia lost tough three-setters, they showed great tenacity and desire, finding ways to work their way into their matches after losing the first set. The coaching staff likes the way that everyone is developing and we are looking forward to the matches in Orlando next week."
Match Notes
• Navy now holds a 7-3 all-time record against Georgetown, winning the last four meetings in the series.
• The Mids have now posted at least 13 wins every season in program history other than the COVID-abbreviated 2021 campaign (7-4 record in 2021).
• Johns and Cheng both extended their singles winning streaks to seven.
• Lee and Shanker are now 7-3 this spring as a doubles pairing.
• Now sitting alone at third in program history with 79 career singles wins, Tannenbaum needs 10 more to catch Amanda Keller for second.
• With 26 singles wins this season, Tannenbaum is three shy of matching her program-record 29 singles victories from last season.
Up Next
Navy will head to the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., for four matches next week. The Mids will play No. 40 Princeton (11:30 a.m.) and Butler (3 p.m.) on Monday, March 11, before squaring off with Marist (11:30 a.m.) and Marquette (6:30 p.m.) on Wednesday, March 13.
