ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Posting its 12-straight win at home, the Navy women's tennis team earned a 5-2 victory over Loyola in Patriot League action Wednesday afternoon at the Fluegel-Moore Tennis Stadium.
Continuing a dominant stretch that has seen them win 13 of their last 14 matches, the Midshipmen (18-5, 4-1 PL) claimed the first two doubles matches to score the opening point and then won the first four singles matches that finished to clinch the victory before the Greyhounds (2-11, 2-3 PL) salvaged the day by winning a pair of tiebreaker singles contests.
Navy captured the doubles point for the early 1-0 lead when the top tandem of junior
Olivia Fermo and freshman
Nicole Fu comfortably defeated Christine Richiez and Emma Roeck, 6-2, and junior
Julia Lee and sophomore
Grace Li pulled out a 6-3 victory over Emi Shivkumar and Elena Hartley at the No. 2 flight just seconds later. Loyola's Mia Matriccino and Victoria Epps responded on the third court to give the visitors some momentum, picking up a 6-2 win against sophomore
Peyton Amspacher-Philemon and junior
Anna Jordaan.
In singles play, Amspacher-Philemon quickly doubled the Mids' lead with a short 6-0, 6-2 win over Shivkumar at No. 6 singles.
Emma Gu followed suit with a straight-set 6-3, 6-4 victory against Richiez at the top flight to extend the Navy lead to 3-0.
Li provided the match-clinching point at No. 3 by winning her 12th-consecutive singles match, besting Matriccino in a 6-3, 6-4 decision, and sophomore
Molly Bellia added on to Navy's tally in a back-and-forth three-set battle at No. 5, outlasting Roeck by a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 score.
Loyola earned its two team points in tightly contested matches, Epps held off Fermo, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) at the No. 4 spot despite Fermo rallying from a 4-0 deficit in the second set, and Hartley rallied for a tough three-set victory over Fu on the second court, winning 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) to close out the afternoon.
Head Coach Keith Puryear Comments
"Credit to Loyola, they did a good job of pushing us today. The coaching staff knew this would be a tough turn-around after Saturday's Star match, but successful teams make those transitions. True to our character, even those where we lost, we battled. That's all you can ask, to give yourself a chance and to do the best job you can to capitalize. We'll keep fine tuning some things to prep for our match against a talented Howard team on Saturday."
Match Notes
• Navy is now 19-0 in the all-time series with Loyola.
• Li winning 12-straight singles matches marks the 11th time in program history a Navy player has posted a 12-match singles winning streak or better.
• Amspacher-Philemon is now 5-0 at No. 6 singles this year.
Up Next
Navy hosts non-conference foe Howard on Saturday at 11:00 a.m.
