Saturday, William and Mary welcomed Maryland to the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center, ready for a tough matchup. The Tribe (5-3) defeated Big Ten foe Maryland (1-3) in a long and hard-fought 4-3 victory, marking the College’s fourth straight win. Sunday, the Tribe was scheduled to compete against Wake Forest, but the match was postponed and is now slated for April 2 at 12 p.m.
The Terrapins started out strong, taking the doubles point with wins at the top two positions. Tribe duo sophomore Rosie Cheng and senior Olivia Thaler dropped a matchup against Ekaterina Tour and Katsiaryna Yemelyanenka at the No. 2 spot in a quick 6-1 contest. Then, Tribe freshman Vitoria Okuyama and junior Clara Tanielian fell 6-3 to Maryland’s Millie Stretton and Eva Alexandrova at the No. 1 spot, stopping the match at the No. 3 spot.
Despite being down 1-0 early in the match, the College was able to come back thanks to victories at the No. 5, 6 and 4 spots, respectively. Junior Lauren Goodman defeated Terrapin Arnelle Sullivan 6-2 in both sets at the No. 5 spot to even the score at 1-1. The Tribe took the lead the next victory in the No. 6 spot by Thaler, her fourth-straight win. She defeated Maryland’s Anastasiia Gevel 6-2, 6-3 to put the Tribe in the lead. Sophomore Natalia Perry defeated Terrapin Katsiaryna Yemelyaneka in a third-set tiebreaker after dropping the first set 6-2. Perry took the final two sets 6-3, 6-1.
Senior Ekaterina Stepanova won the first part of the three-set matchup at the No. 3 spot against Millie Stretton, but dropped the final two sets 6-3 and 6-4, respectively. Cheng’s victory over Terrapin Ekaterina Tour at the No. 1 spot secured the Tribe’s 4-3 conquest of Maryland. Cheng, now ranked 68th in the nation, dropped the first set in a tough 7-5 battle, but ultimately came out on top with 6-1 triumphs in the final two sets.
Next weekend, the Tribe will travel to Lawrence, Kansas to take on Oregon and Kansas.
