This weekend, the women’s tennis team, ranked no. 26 in the nation, took on two worthy opponents, East Tennessee State University and the University of Virginia. The Tribe reigned victorious over the Buccaneers and the Cavaliers, both on our home court at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center.
p. Saturday, the Tribe took on East Tennessee, whose record prior to opposing the Tribe was 2-3. All three of our doubles teams were victorious. The doubles team of senior Megan Moulton-Levy and sophomore Katarina Zoricic, ranked no. 1 in the nation, crushed East Tennessee’s Masha Ilina and Yevgeniya Stupak. This triumph raised the Tribe duo’s season mark to 20-1.
p. Freshman Lauren Sabacinski only dropped one game on her quest for a win over Vita Moskaliova, with a final score of 6-0, 6-1 at the no. 6 position. This is Sabacinski’s fourth straight victory, upping her record to 12-3 for the entire year. At the no. 1 position, Moulton-Levy, who is ranked fifth nationally, gained a victory. She won with the same final score as Sabacinski, raising her yearly record to 14-4 overall. Kasztelaniec, Tribe’s no. 3 player, won her match with a little less ease. Ranked 58th nationally, she split the first two sets with her opponent, Ilina, but won the third in a tiebreaker, 10-4. This is Kasztelaniec’s 14th win of the season.
p. Sunday’s match against the Virginia Cavaliers brought the Tribe even more success. U.Va., who is ranked 25th, lost to the Tribe by a final score of 5-2. This marks the sixth straight victory over the Cavs. The recent triumph also marks the team’s ninth victory over a top-25 nationally ranked team in Coach Kevin Epley’s tenure at the College.
p. The Cavaliers are not only an in-state rival of the team, but both schools have the top two freshmen recruiting classes in the country, according to the Tennis Recruiting Network, who slotted U.Va. at no. 1 and put the Tribe in the second position. The Tribe freshmen backed up their high ranking with impressive play, as the doubles team of freshmen Ragini Acharya and Magdalena Bresson won both their doubles and singles matches. At the no. 4 ranking, Acharya won her first two sets, 6-1, and 6-2, gaining a victory over Virginia’s Maggie Yahner. Bresson, Acharya’s fellow freshman and doubles partner, won her match at the no. 5 spot. She beat the Cavaliers’ Lindsey Pereira, 6-0, 6-3, upping her record to 13-7 overall.
p. Moulton-Levy, the no. 1 positioned player, beat Virginia’s Brintney Larson, winning the first set, 7-5, and then the second set 6-1, for her 15th victory this season.
p. The team will now travel to the mid-west for three matches. The Tribe plays the University of Illinois Feb. 9 and seventh-ranked Georgia Tech Feb. 10. Both of these matches will be played in Champagne, Ill. The College will end their road trip by battling no. 40 Purdue University Feb. 11 in West Lafayette, Ind.