LEWISBURG, Pa. – With freshman
Anna Wiskowski's clincher sending the Midshipmen to the championship match, the No. 2 seed Navy women's tennis team took down third-seeded Army, 4-2, in the semifinals of the 2026 Patriot League Championship on Saturday afternoon at the Bucknell Varsity Tennis Courts in Lewisburg, Pa.
Taking down the rival Black Knights (22-7) for the second time in three weeks, the Mids (22-5) earned their second trip to the league finals over the last three seasons, setting up a championship Sunday showdown against top-seeded Boston University.
Army took an early 1-0 advantage after claiming the first two doubles matches, as Madison Smith and Isabella Brilliant defeated freshman
Nicole Fu and junior
Olivia Fermo, 6-3, at the top flight to start the day. Vennmukiil Mathivanan and Ylan Duong then secured the doubles point with a 6-1 victory over sophomore
Grace Li and junior
Julia Lee at No. 3, despite the Navy No. 2 pairing of junior
Anna Jordaan and sophomore
Peyton Amspacher-Philemon rallying to hold a 4-3 lead over Emily Ruckno and Olivia Mellynchuk when play was halted.
The Black Knights extended their lead to 2-0 in singles play when Ruckno dispatched sophomore
Molly Bellia, 6-1, 6-0, at the No. 4 spot, but the Mids took control of the contest from there, rattling off four consecutive victories to seal the win. Amspacher-Philemon sparked Navy's comeback on the fifth court with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Duong, and Li quickly tied the overall match at 2-2 by besting Emma Sy in a 6-3, 6-3 final on the No. 3 court.
Fu then gave Navy its first lead of the afternoon, downing Mathivanan by a 6-1, 6-3 score in the No. 2 flight to push the team score to 3-2,
While sophomore
Emma Gu was trying to pull off her own three-set rally against Smith in the later-abandoned No. 1 singles match, the deciding point fell to the No. 6 court, as Wiskowski dropped her opening set but found her rhythm afterwards to defeat Stacey Samonte, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, and send Navy to the championship.
Head Coach Keith Puryear Comments
"We congratulate Army on a great season and wish their seniors well as they prepare to move on into service for our nation. This was another knock-down, drag-out match between our two teams. We didn't do a great job of capitalizing early in the doubles. While Peyton and AJ were able to fight back, our No. 1 and No. 3 teams couldn't after falling behind.
We showed great resilience in digging in to secure the points needed in singles. Nicole, Grace and Peyton played with tenacity and smarts, dealing with sometimes windy conditions, while Emma battled back after losing a tight first set and was on serve in the third. But it was
Anna Wiskowski who was able to bring it home for the win. She fought in a nip-and-tuck battle against a player from Army who hadn't lost a match all spring, showing gritty stuff. In the final set, all six of the games she won were deuce points and every game except one went to deuce.
We'll look to prepare for BU tomorrow indoors, as we're looking forward to another great battle."
Match Notes
• Navy is now 11-14 in the all-time series with Army.
• This marks the second time Navy has gone 2-0 against Army in a season, with the first time being in 2024.
• Li extended her singles winning streak to 14-straight matches.
• Li's streak that started Feb. 15 marks the second-longest singles win streak in program history, needing one more win to tie Kacey Moore's program-record 15-match winning streak from Feb. 2-April 7, 2019.
• Amspacher-Philemon moved her singles winning streak to six matches and has now won 19 of her last 20 singles matches.
• Wiskowski enters Sunday on a five-match singles win streak.
• Fu's 27 singles wins this season are tied for the fifth-most in program single-season history.
• Sunday will mark Navy's ninth appearance in the league's championship match.
• Navy's last appearance in the league finals saw the Mids defeat Boston in 2024 for the program's first Patriot League title.
• Navy is now 12-5 all-time as the No. 2 seed in the Patriot League Tournament.
Up Next
Navy and Boston will play Sunday for the Patriot League title at 12 noon at the Central PA Tennis Center in South Williamsport, Pa., with the winner earning an automatic berth to next month's NCAA Tournament
