Competing at the Big Green Invitational at the Boss Tennis Center over the weekend, the last tennis tournament of the fall term, the Dartmouth women's tennis team competed hard and showed much promise for the spring season.
Sisters Mary Beth Winingham '10 and Lindsay Winingham '07 dominated the doubles field, Elizabeth Warnack '10 reached the finals in B flight singles action, and teammate Jamie Caplan '09 reached the B flight consolation finals to highlight the Dartmouth performances.
The Big Green women's singles players found success early on in day one of the tournament in B flight action. Danielle Murray '09 led the team by stunning the B flight No. 1 seed Katie Draganova of Boston University, 6-2, 2-6, 10-7, after easily defeating an opponent from Stony Brook University earlier in the day.
Twin sister Jen Murray '09 also won both her B flight matches, beating opponents from Long Island University and Stony Brook. In other B flight action, Warnack also defeated an opponent from BU, 6-4, 6-1 while Julia Zak '10 fell to the No. 3 seed from BU in the second round after easily downing a Siena College opponent.
The Big Green experienced more mixed success in A flight action. Jesse Adler '10 was the only Big Green A flight player to win both her matches. She dominated an opponent from the University of Rhode Island, 6-2, 6-0, before shutting out the A flight No. 7 seed from BU 6-0, 6-0.
Captain Kerry Snow '07 won her first round match against Karina Davis of Siena before being stopped by Stephanie Dellocono of Southern Mississippi in a closely fought three-set match 6-4, 4-6, 10-6.
Carley Markovitz '10 also won her first match of the day, beating Taylor Barvoets of Siena, before falling to Masha Pozar of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst 6-4, 6-0.
Both Lindsay and Mary Beth Winingham lost opening round matches to BU opponents. Mary Beth did win her second match against Sandy Wijeratne of Stony Brook, 7-5, 6-3.
In day one doubles action, only the Winingham sisters emerged without a loss. Playing only one match, they defeated an Long Island University team 8-3. The freshman duo of Zak and Warnack dominated in the first round by thrashing a second LIU team 8-1, but fell in the second round to a strong team from URI. The other Big Green doubles teams of J. Murray/D. Murray, Markovitz/Caplan, and Adler/Snow all lost in opening round play.
Day two of the tournament again featured success by Big Green singles players in B flight action. Warnack, Jen Murray and Danielle Murray all defeated opponents in their first matches of the day to secure spots in the semifinals.
Danielle Murray defaulted her semifinal match to Warnack, who then advanced to the finals. Unfortunately, Jen Murray was shut out by Rebecca Row of BU.
In main draw A flight singles action, Jesse Adler avenged Carley Markovitz's loss to Masha Pozar by defeating Pozar 6-4, 6-2. Adler was ousted in the semifinals by A flight No. 2 seed Lara Mauer in an incredibly even three set match 7-6, 6-7, 11-9.
The Winingham doubles team also won both its quarterfinal and semifinal matches to secure a spot in the finals the next day. The Wininghams defeated teams from BU and Cincinnati, both by a score of 8-4.
The Wininghams continued their dominance of the doubles field on the final day of the Big Green Invitational by routing their URI opponents 8-2.
Warnack lost her B Finals matchup to fellow Texan Rebecca Row of BU, 6-2, 6-1. Caplan also lost her B finals consolation matchup 6-3, 7-5.
Coach Robert Dallis was especially appreciative of all the families who came to see the Big Green in action.
"It was great to see two generations of Warnacks, Jeff Zak, Lori Caplan, the Wininghams and daughter Kate, a large group of Markovitzes and an even larger group of Adlers and Junges," Dallis said.
Tennis fans can catch the Big Green men's team in action here in Hanover over the weekend at the men's Big Green Invitational. The women will return to competition on Jan. 19 when Dartmouth hosts LIU.
