ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A grueling three-and-half-hour match on Saturday afternoon saw junior Parvathi Shanker come from behind and send the No. 2-seed Navy women's tennis team (23-6) to Sunday's Patriot League Championship match, as the Midshipmen pulled out the 4-3 victory over third-seeded Army (18-10) in the league semifinals at the Fluegel-Moore Tennis Stadium.
 
Beating Army twice in a season for the first time in program history, the Midshipmen's win punched their ticket to the league finals against top-seeded Boston University, as the Terriers defeated No. 5-seed Lehigh, 4-0, in the earlier semifinal contest inside the Tose Family Tennis Center.
 
Sunday's showdown with Boston marks Navy's first trip to the Patriot League Finals since the 2021 season and their eighth overall appearance in the championship match, as the Mids will look to capture their first league title in program history at 1 p.m. on their home courts.
 
Navy was able to put itself in the driver's seat early by taking the doubles point, as Shanker and fellow junior Kate Lee paired up in the third court for a 6-1 win over Isabella Brilliant and Paulina Feoli, while sophomore Sia Chaudry and senior Samantha Johns pulled away from the Black Knights' No. 1 pairing of Cooper Jackson and Paige Herremans for a 6-3 victory that closed out doubles play. Left unfinished, junior Emily Tannenbaum and freshman Olivia Fermo held a 4-3 lead against the No. 2 Army team of Jenna Sabile and Julia Kelly.
 
Tannenbaum then faced Jackson for the fourth-straight time in singles play at an Army-Navy match, working her way to a 6-3, 6-3 victory on the No. 1 court and putting Navy up 2-0. Playing at No. 4 singles, Emma Sy got the Black Knights on the board with her 6-4, 6-2 win over Lee, but Chaudry soon finished off Ylan Duong by claiming the last five points in the second set of a 6-3, 6-3 victory in the No. 3 matchup.
 
Sabile pulled the momentum back in Army's direction at the No. 2 court when she beat Johns, 6-2, 6-2, while an hour elapsed before Vennmukiil Mathivanan outlasted freshman Mikaila Cheng in the five-spot, using a 6-1, 6-7 (2-7), 6-2 win to even the team score at 3-3.
 
After battling each other for nearly three hours on the sixth court, Shanker came back from down 4-1 in the third set to tie the score and then fought off match-point before rallying for the final three points of the deciding set, using her 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 victory to clinch the Navy win over rival Army and advance to Sunday's championship.
 
Coach Keith Puryear Comments
"Nerves are just frayed. Today was a battle, it was up-and-down. I think beating Army twice shows that our ladies have really done a great job this year of coming out every practice giving it everything that they had, employing the things we've been working on in match-play and bringing it every single match. Each time, someone new is looking to step up and that's really what we've been espousing as the Navy way."
 
"Parv did a great job of fighting back in that third set through the ebbs and flows. She sort of let the momentum get away from her but she did a great job of hanging around and I loved that she stayed with the game plan against a tough competitor."
 
"Tomorrow should be the same thing we saw today, we're going to go out and go to battle. We can't really get wrapped up in the results, we just have to take care of things we have control over and that's our attitude and effort. We're going to do what we've done all year long and that's battle."
 
Match Notes
• Navy is now 9-13 all-time against Army and have won five of the last seven meetings between the rivals.
• Navy holds a 21-13 overall record in the Patriot League Tournament with Saturday's win.
• Navy is now 3-8 against Army in the Patriot League Tournament.
• The Mids improved to 8-6 all-time in the league semifinal round.
• Navy now holds a 9-5 mark as the No. 2 seed in the league tournament and an 8-3 mark when playing the tournament in Annapolis.
• Navy and Boston will face each other for the fourth time in the league championship match.
• Navy has advanced to the league championship match in all four times the Mids have hosted the Patriot League Tournament.
• Sitting alone at third in program history with 86 career singles wins, Tannenbaum needs three more to catch Amanda Keller for second.
• Holding 153 career combined wins, Tannenbaum is seven away from matching Keller's program-record 160.
• Tannenbaum has now won eight-straight singles matches against Patriot League opponents
• Sitting at 18-1 this spring, Tannenbaum needs one more victory to match the program record for single-season singles dual-meet wins, while Johns needs two more victories to reach the same record with a 17-5 mark.
 
Up Next
Navy and Boston will play for the Patriot League Championship and an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon at the Fluegel-Moore Tennis Stadium.