The No. 10 Pomona-Pitzer women’s tennis team (5-2, 1-0 SCIAC) swept Vassar College for a 9-0 win on Wednesday, March 12 at home. The
Sagehens won all six of
their singles matches without without losing a single set, and they won all three doubles matches. The win brings the team to 3-0 at
home. Vassar, who won two matches against No. 7 Bowdoin College on
Tuesday, was unable to win any matches against the dominating Sagehens.
The day started out with the
doubles teams of Sammy Chao PO ’14 and Lea Lynn Yen PO ’16, Maddie Gordon PO ’17 and Rosemary Pelch PO ’17, and Arthi Padmanabhan PO ’14 and Mae Coyuito PO ’16.
On court one, Chao and Yen got off to a quick start, breaking Vassar to go
up 2-0. Later in the match, Vassar’s first team was able to close
the gap significantly on Chao and Yen, bringing the score to 6-5—only a one-game lead for the Sagehens. However, Chao and Yen were able to break Vassar and finish the match strong with an 8-5 win.
“Vassar is a feisty and solid team so it was really
great to see everyone keep their heads, stick to their game plan, and take care of business,” Chao said. “It was also great to see the hard work that
we put in during practice really pay off during our matches.”
The second team of Pelch and Gordon had
no problem in their doubles match, dominating Vassar 8-3.
The team of Padmanabhan and Coyuito also had a comfortable lead
throughout the match, up 7-4 going into the final game. On the last
point, Coyuito fought back a forehand down the sideline with a nice return, and
Padmanabhan finished Vassar off with a volley at the net to win the match 8-4.
The singles
started with Chao facing off against Vassar’s Samantha Shapiro. Chao
started off slowly, and Shapiro took a 2-1 lead in the first set.
However, Chao went on to win the next five games in a row to win the set 6-2. In the second set, the battle between Shapiro and Chao was tight, and Chao
found herself down 3-2 early. But Chao was able to break Shapiro and win
multiple games in a row to claim the second set 6-4 and with it, the match.
Coyuito
also started off her match by trading games with her Vassar opponent Emily
Hallewell, and was tied 4-4 just over halfway through the first set.
Coyuito then went on to win the next two games and take the first set 6-4.
Coyuito then swept the second set 6-0 to win the match.
Yen had no problem with her singles opponent, Winnie Yeates, and cruised to a
two-set victory, 6-2 and 6-1.
Padmanabhan swept her
first singles set for a 6-0 victory. In the second set, opponent Lindsay Kantor won the
first three games to put Padmanabhan down early, but Padmanabhan fought
back and ultimately defeated Kantor 6-4.
The last
two singles matches of the day featured Pelch and Gordon. Pelch
and Gordon both held leads through their matches and only allowed their
opponents to win four games in each of their matches. Pelch defeated Vassar’s
Lauren Stauffer 6-2, 6-2, while Gordon beat Shayna Becker 6-1, 6-3.
After the
day’s matches finished, Chao commented on the progress of the team.
“It was a dominant performance all around, and
everyone should be proud of what they accomplished,” Chao said. “Each match we keep getting better as a team, and so I’m excited to see what we can do the rest of
the season.”
The Sagehens also played a match yesterday, March 13, against No. 8 Carnegie Mellon University. Carnegie Mellon came off a 6-3 win against the University of Redlands on Wednesday, March 12, and continued that momentum through the doubles match ups, pulling ahead 2-1. Chao and Yen won the lone doubles match for P-P, and the Sagehens rallied in singles to pull off a 5-4 win, handing Carnegie Mellon their second loss of the season.
Next up, the Sagehens have even more tough competition as they match up against No. 7 Bowdoin College on Sunday, March 16 at 11 a.m. and No. 4 Amherst College on Monday, March 17 at 9:30 a.m.