The best part about college tennis is the 3-3 matches with just one singles point deciding everything, according to senior co-caption Ann Scott. And that's exactly what the Big Green women had on their hands Wednesday night against the University of Massachusetts at the Boss Tennis Center. Unfortunately, the Minutewomen took that final singles point and the match en route to a close 4-3 win.
The casual tennis fan will point the finger at Danielle Murray '09 who lost the deciding singles point at the No. 5 slot, but what really cost the Big Green was its doubles play. Going into the match, Dartmouth was 0-4 when losing the doubles point, and Wednesday night was no different.
However, things looked good early on when Jamie Caplan '09 and Kerry Snow '07 steamrolled their opponents at No. 3 doubles by the score of 8-1. All the Big Green needed was to pick up one of the two remaining doubles matches, but after the team of Natalie O'Rourke '08 and Megan Zebrowski '08 lost at No. 1 doubles 8-6, it was up to the senior squad of Scott and Katie Jaxheimer to take care of business.
After UMass broke their serve early on, the Big Green duo was forced to play catch-up for most of the match. But after a Jaxheimer slam, the pair had clawed their way back to tie it up at six-all.
"At that point it's like, all right we have to continue playing our game," said Scott. "Katie and I especially, we start losing when we start sitting back a little bit and let them miss. So it was just sort of like, alright this is a tight match and it's hard to be aggressive and go after all of your balls but that's what you have to do."
But the Minutewomen put an end to their run and won the next two games and the match 8-6.
When the singles matches rolled around, the Big Green lineup was drastically shaken up due to illness and injury.
"We talk about all year that we have 11 really good players on the team. Maggie [Suydam '08] got hurt in Minnesota, and Lindsay [Winingham '07] had the flu and really couldn't do anything for a couple days, so we didn't want to put her in there. We had the lineup there to win the match and we just didn't come through."
Zebrowski stepped in for Winingham at the No. 1 slot and faced Michelle Spiess, last week's Atlantic 10 player of the week. But early on that didn't phase Zebrowski as she broke Spiess in the first game of the match, and later would go up 3-2. But Spiess took over from that point and won 6-4, 6-3.
Caplan continued her strong play at No. 3 winning easily 6-2, 6-1, increasing her singles win streak to three matches. Scott also kept her win streak alive but didn't have as easy a time of it. She started out strong and went up quickly on her opponent 5-0 in the first set, but things did not stay that way.
"I started off playing really well, just making every ball, and she was getting really frustrated and honestly giving me a lot of points that I really didn't deserve," said Scott. "And then all of a sudden she started to turn it on and just made me start to play a lot."
Scott was able to pull out the first game 6-4, before her opponent rallied back in the second set to win 6-2, but once it reached the third set Scott was in her comfort zone. Scott took over in the third set to win the match 6-3.
The third set "favors my game because I'm frustrating to play against and the longer people have to play me the more irritated they get," Scott said. "And I think it's favorable for me because I'm also a competitor. I play a lot better in long matches because when it comes down to it I want to be in the big points."
After Jennifer Murray '09 won her match 6-1, 6-1, it was up to her twin sister Danielle to bring it home for the Big Green. She lost the first set 7-5 and that's when the drama began. Murray went up 3-2 and then a string of five games ensued where neither player was able to hold her serve. Murray eventually lost the three-hour marathon match 7-5, 7-5.
Rather than display deep disappointment after such a pressure-packed defeat, Murray was proud of her performance and summed up the day by saying that "the match was fun."
The Dartmouth women will be back in action on Saturday when they take on Stony Brook at 9 a.m, and the University of Connecticut at 3 p.m.
