ARLINGTON, Va. – The Navy women's tennis team got an early taste of rivalry matches this weekend at the Commander-In-Chief's Challenge, with the three-day event seeing the Midshipmen play a round robin against players from Army and Air Force at the Army-Navy Country Club in Arlington, Va.
With sophomore
Anna Jordaan and freshman
Grace Li each going a combined 2-0 between doubles and singles play, the Mids picked up four singles wins overall and a pair of doubles victories.
Opening with singles competition on Friday, Navy was led by Jordaan notching a 6-4, 7-6 (7-1) win over Air Force's Sofia Mavor, while classmate
Manci Pal put up a tough two-set battle against the Falcons' Shivaani Selvan but fell by a 7-5, 6-4 score. The rest of Friday had senior captain
Kate Lee fall to Alexis Odom while Nadia Kojonroj knocked off fellow senior
Sylvia Eklund, Arianna Van Houweling defeated sophomore
Olivia Fermo and Giovanna SanChirico upend freshman
Emma Gu.
Saturday's doubles action had the Mids open up with Li and sophomore
Makaila Cheng scoring a 7-6 (7-4) victory against Army's Cooper Jackson and Paige Herremans, but the Black Knights' Jenna Sabile and Julia Kelly then knocked off the freshman duo of Gu and
Molly Bellia, 6-3, while Vennmukiil Mathivanan and Emily Ruckno took down another rookie pairing in
Vanessa Popescu and
Peyton Amspacher-Philemon, 6-2.
Sunday featured both doubles and singles play, with the doubles matches seeing Jordaan and Eklund pull out a 6-3 win over Selvan and SanChirico of the Falcons, but Kojonroj and Van Houweling knocked off Lee and Gu, 6-4, while Odom and Mavor partnered to beat Pal and Bellia, 6-3.
In Sunday's singles portion, Cheng suffered a three-set loss to Army's Jackson, 5-7, 6-4, 10-8, but Li managed a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory against Mathivanan and Gu knocked off Ylan Duong, 6-3, 6-2. Popescu then outlasted Kelly for a 6-1, 6-2 win while Emma Sy battled past Bellia, 7-5, 6-4, and Amspacher-Philemon fell to Madison Smith.
Up Next
Navy will send Fermo and senior
Emily Tannenbaum to the Milwaukee Tennis Classic while the rest of the Mids will compete at the Navy Blue & Gold Invitational, with both tournaments being held Sept. 27-29.
