ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Making the long trip to Central New York, the Navy women's tennis team (12-9, 2-0 PL) will take on Patriot League foe Colgate (10-7, 1-2 PL) in a 3:30 p.m. match Saturday afternoon at the Drumlins Tennis Club in Syracuse, N.Y.
 
Meeting in the regular season for the first time since 2019, the Midshipmen and Raiders' contest will also be the fifth of seven-straight matches away from home for the Mids.
 
Eklund Squared
Saturday's match will mark the first time in their collegiate careers that Navy senior Sylvia Eklund and Colgate's Addie Eklund will play in the same dual-match, as the twin sisters from Bellevue, Wash., both find themselves as mainstays in their teams' respective lineups … Sylvia is 14-13 this season in singles matches with a 13-9 doubles mark … Addie is 11-6 in singles play this spring and 7-4 in doubles action.
 
Last Time Out
The Mids opened Patriot League play last weekend with a pair of road wins, scoring a 6-1 victory at Lehigh on Saturday before traveling to South Williamsport the next day for another 6-1 win over Bucknell … With Navy's top two pairing pulling out wins to claim the doubles point over the Mountain Hawks, the Mids then got singles victories from senior Emily Tannenbaum, freshmen Emma Gu and Molly Bellia and seniors Sylvia Eklund and Kate Lee … Despite falling on the top court, Navy used wins from the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams to earn the opening point against the Bison, then tallying singles wins courtesy of Tannenbaum, rookie Grace Li, Bellia, Gu and sophomore Manci Pal to finish off the team's second victory in two days … The Mids are 2-0 in the Patriot League for the fourth-straight season and have now won five of their last six matches this spring.
 
Mids in the National Rankings
Navy was well-represented in the national singles and doubles rankings put out by the ITA at the end of the fall, appearing three times … Slotted at No. 87 in the singles rankings was senior Emily Tannenbaum, with the Midshipmen having two doubles teams ranked as well … Tannenbaum and fellow senior Parvathi Shanker rated 51st on the doubles list, while the pairing of Tannenbaum alongside sophomore Olivia Fermo was slotted at 104th in the same rating list … Tannenbaum came in at No. 117 in the latest singles rankings of the spring on March 18.
 
Tannenbaum Rewriting Record Book
Now holding three more spots in the Navy record book after setting the program records for career singles, doubles and combined wins during the Milwaukee Tennis Classic, Tannenbaum holds a total of seven school records … Last spring, the then-junior set the program record for single-season singles wins (33) and career No. 1 singles victories (37) while also resetting a pair of program single-season records she had previously set, tallying 18 victories at the No. 1 singles spot and registering 55 combined wins over the course of the campaign … Tannenbaum needs four more doubles wins to break the program single-season record of 24 set by Amanda Keller, Kaylah Hodge and Claudia Mackenzie during the 2017-18 campaign … Tannenbaum also needs two more wins at the No. 1 doubles spot to break the program career record held by Hodge and Keller at 23 top-doubles victories.
 
Puryear Achieves Navy Milestone
With a doubleheader sweep to start the spring slate, head coach Keith Puryear reached the 300-win mark for his Navy tenure … Compiling a 310-110 (.738) record through 17 seasons at the helm of the Mids, Puryear has also posted a 525-237 mark as a women's coach between his time at UMBC and Navy … His 513 victories ranked 20th among Division I women's coaches all-time and 10th among active women's coaches at the DI level entering the spring season.
 
Scouting Colgate
The Raiders have won five of their last six matches coming into Saturday, bouncing back from a 5-2 loss to Omaha that ended their four-game winning streak on March 18 by knocking off Stony Brook in a 4-3 victory the next day … Colgate enters with three league matches under its belt, falling 6-1 to Boston and 4-0 to Army but cruising to a 7-0 win over Holy Cross earlier this month … Rebecca Hess paces the team with 13 singles wins this spring, including a 7-1 mark at the No. 5 flight … No. 1 player Amelia Galin is 9-7 in the top singles spot … The pairing of Galin and Sophia Montero have led the Raiders this spring with a 10-5 record in the No. 1 doubles position … Montero returns after claiming All-Patriot League Second Team honors last season, helping Colgate go 10-10 overall and 3-2 in league matches.
 
Series History
Navy is 9-0 in the all-time series with Colgate, including going 6-0 against the Raiders in regular-season meetings … The last match between the teams came on April 30, 2021 in Annapolis, as the Mids notched a 4-0 win over the Raiders in the Patriot League Quarterfinals … Navy and Colgate last met in the regular season on March 24, 2019 in Syracuse, with the Mids registering a 7-0 shutout.
 
Up Next
Navy will travel to rival Army next Saturday, April 5, for the annual Star Match. The showdown, part of the 2024-25 Army-Navy Star Series presented by USAA, is set for 11 a.m. in West Point, N.Y.