The No. 75 Dartmouth women's tennis team rolled through a pair of home matches Saturday, topping Colgate 6-1 in the morning before blanking the University of Maryland-Baltimore Country 7-0 in the afternoon session. With the wins, the Big Green improved its record to 7-1 on the campaign.
The lady racketeers entered the match with a significant portion of the players contending with illnesses, in addition to losing standouts Megan Zebroski '08 and co-captain Sarah McNally '05 to injuries. Nevertheless, Dartmouth demonstrated its toughness, as well as its versatility and depth, in overwhelming its opponents.
"One of our team's best attributes is that we always try our hardest, no matter who our opponents are," Kerry Snow '07 said. "This really showed in Saturday's matches, as people were not willing to let up on any point and let Colgate or UMBC get an additional game."
Dartmouth started the Colgate match with a trio of doubles victories. The Big Green has now not lost a single doubles contest since the Missouri match on Feb. 6.
The Dartmouth teams on the day featured many new pairings, yet the relatively unfamiliar tandems still produced solid performances.
At No. 2, Ann Scott '06 and Natalie O'Rourke '08 shellacked their Colgate adversaries 8-2, while co-captain Jayme Ahmed '05 and Catja Carrell '08 united for a convincing 8-1 triumph at the third position.
At the top spot, Lindsay Winingham '07 and Maggie Suydam '08 faced a spirited challenge from the Raiders' best tandem of Jamie Maldow and Alex Seaton. In the end, the Dartmouth duo's excellent athleticism, combined with a number of big serves and impressive reflex volleys, proved too much for Colgate, and the Big Green emerged with an 8-6 win.
Dartmouth captured five of the six singles matches while featuring a shuffled lineup against the Raiders. Leading the way at the first and second positions were Winingham and Margaret Fitchet '08, who both won with ease. Winingham stepped up to the No. 1 position in place of Ahmed to take a 6-1, 6-1 victory, while Fitchet pummeled her foe 6-0, 6-2.
Achieving similar success at the fourth position was Katie Jaxheimer '06, who breezed by Lindsey Grossman 6-1, 6-1. At No. 6, Evie "Rudy" Stevens '05 put another point on the board for Dartmouth by crushing Lauren Levy 6-0, 6-1.
The most exciting match of the morning session came at No. 5, where freshman Carrell tussled with Colgate's Lillien Vo. The grand German edged Vo in the first set, winning in a tiebreaker 7-5. The next frame proved just as tight, as the two competitors again had to settle the set in a tiebreaker.
Carrell fought from behind throughout the tiebreaker, first erasing a 0-2 deficit before later facing three set points. Yet, Carrell stepped up in the most pressure-packed situations and managed to erase Vo's advantage before closing out the match with a 9-7 victory in the dramatic tiebreaker.
The Big Green maintained its momentum in the UMBC match and started once again with a sweep in doubles action.
The Retrievers only could muster a total of three games in the three matches against the dominant Dartmouth duos.
At No. 1, Winingham and O'Rourke came together for an 8-2 win, while at No. 2, Ahmed and Fitchet won 8-1. The contest at the third spot was an even bigger blowout, as the blond bombshell pair of Scott and Snow picked up an 8-0 triumph.
Ahmed returned to the singles lineup to pace the undefeated Dartmouth effort against UMBC. The Big Green's top player clobbered former junior rival Alessandra Pedergnana in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1, by accumulating an amazing number of winners from all over the court. Fitchet again stepped up to play at No. 2 and once again faced no serious challenge, winning 6-0, 6-0.
Suydam, Scott and Snow succeeded superbly in their singles encounters, as all produced convincing victories.
Suydam toppled Adriana Fonseca 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3. Scott squashed Elizabeth Anderson 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4. And Snow hammered Gabriela Furdyna 6-0, 6-0.
The match at the sixth position featured an especially gritty performance from Jaxheimer, who, after winning the first set 6-3, found herself in a battle for the second frame with Pascaline Cette.
Jaxheimer climbed out of an early 0-3 hole before eventually forcing a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, the Pennsylvania native overcame a set
point against her before winning 9-7 to complete the sweep for Dartmouth.
"The matches this weekend were a great end to our winter season," Winingham said. "The fact that we mixed up our lineup and still had two convincing wins shows the depth that we have on our team this year. It was especially impressive how Katie and Catja came out to win second-set tiebreak victories and really demonstrates how mentally tough they are."
The Big Green will take a hiatus from match play before embarking on its spring break trip to Florida for five matches in eight days.
"It would have been easy to lose focus as a team after coming off of a great win against BC and facing a long double-header as our last two matches of the winter season," Ahmed added. "But despite the alternate lineups and illness, the team came out with a lot of confidence and energy and fought hard when the matches became close. Our mental and physical toughness will be crucial when we play in Florida over spring break."
