After the three unsure days of traveling that it took to get to Charlotte, the fatigued Big Green could not pull out a victory against Davidson.
On Thursday night, the team's flight to Charlotte from Philadelphia was cancelled -- the squad's luggage made the trip without them. The following day, after missing three potential flights, the team decided to hit the open road for the long trip to North Carolina.
The women spent the night in a hotel on the border between Virginia and North Carolina, then drove 200 miles the following day and made it to the match with a couple of hours to spare. At one point, coach Bob Dallis asked his team if they wanted to skip Davidson and head straight to Furman but the team unanimously replied that they wanted to play on Saturday.
"I think under the circumstances with not having practicing the day before and a 10-hour car ride kind of made it a funny trip," Lindsay Winingham '07 said. I don't think you can go out and play your best tennis after what we went through."
The highlight of the weekend was the triumph of Jamie Caplan '09 over Furman sophomore Lauren Tomoroy in the No. 1 singles match. Caplan's win gave Dartmouth its fourth point and the victory.
Caplan had a slow start in the first set, committing errors and failing to move the ball around the court to keep her opponent on her toes; she lost the set to Tomoroy 3-6. But during Caplan's second set she saw that Jesse Adler '10 had tied the overall score; each team had three wins. She then began to play more aggressively and picked up some key points to win the tie breaker. Coming back from a 4-5 disadvantage she won the second set 7-6.
"In the second set, I was trying to do everything I could to win," Caplan said. [Tomoroy] was a consistent player. In order to beat her I had to be aggressive. I had no other way to win the point."
Leading into her third set, the team had to leave in order to make it to the airport in time for the flight home. Dartmouth's fate rested squarely on Caplan as she faced her opponent alone in the foreign Mickel Tennis Center. Coach Dallis assured her that they were going to make their flight, helping her concentrate on the match. Caplan continued her domination of Tomoroy that began in the critical tie breaker of the previous set into the third set and silenced the competition, 6-1.
"It was really close, it was a battle but the whole time I knew that it was going to be all or nothing. I was there by myself for the third set and tried to be as focused as I possibly could and pull it out for the team," Caplan said.
Another key victory was senior captain Kerry Snow in the No. 4 singles spot against the Lady Paladin senior Bonnie Baird. Snow won 6-3, 7-6.
"She did a really good job of recognizing what her opponent could and could not do and then was able to tailor where she was hitting the ball," Dallis said.
Mary Beth Winingham '10 was the first Dartmouth player to win a singles match, beating out Lauren Osborne 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2. Like Snow, she capitalized on her opponent's weakness by serving and returning to her weaker side and forcing Osborne to use her forehand.
Dartmouth started off the day after enduring a sweep in the doubles matches.
"Its not unheard of, a team winning after losing the doubles point, but it's hard to do. Probably 80 to 90 percent the teams that win the doubles point win the match," Dallis said.
However, while they lost in the No. 2 doubles match, Snow and Winningham, Dartmouth's other senior captain, did not give up easily and gained momentum for the team by playing out a long tie breaker.
"Our doubles match set the mood for rest of the match; it was so close it gave us momentum going into the singles. Doubles can set a really bad tone but our doubles match helped set the tone for the rest of day," Snow said.
Dartmouth's only point against Davidson came from Jesse Adler '10, who controlled the center of the court and made her opponent, junior Kim Whelan move around in the No. 5 singles, winning 6-2, 6-4.
In doubles play, Mary Beth Winingham and Zebroski led the way in the No. 1 doubles match against juniors Kelsey Linville and Kim Whelan. The Dartmouth doubles team stayed on the offensive in the match and won 8-4.
"They played slow paced, they were really different and had a different rhythm, they were hard to play. Regardless we had to take control of the match and we did fine," Zebroski said.
In the No. 2 doubles match Lindsay Winingham and Snow lost 8-2. Natalie O'Rourke '08 and Adler in the No. 3 doubles also fell to Davidson 8-2.
The Winingham sisters and Snow all lost in two sets in the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 singles spots.
In the No. 1 singles match, Zebroski struggled against junior Kelsey Linville who had a similar playing style, using slices and dropped balls. After losing a very close first set 7-5, Zebroski came back to win the next set 6-1 but fell in the third set 6-3.
"Davidson just played a little better than us. It was not one thing or another; they were just a little bit better," Dallis said.
The Big Green women's tennis team will be playing at home in the Alexis Boss Tennis Center Friday, Feb. 23 at 5 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 24.
