COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College women's tennis team's historic victory on Tuesday was an inside job. Playing inside the friendly confines of the Floy Lewis Bakes Center, the Bears turned back the clock more than three decades, snapping a 34-match losing streak to visiting Haverford with an 8-1 Centennial Conference triumph.
By the time senior captain BreAnna Bashaw closed out a three-set win at number two singles, Ursinus (7-3, 1-2) had knocked off Haverford for the first time since the programs' first-ever meeting all the way back in 1983. The Fords (5-5, 2-2), who have qualified for the conference playoffs each of the last eight seasons, had taken the last 34 meetings since then, including a 5-0 shutout in the Bears' first postseason appearance a year ago.
This time was different.
Ursinus swept doubles play, pulling away from nip-and-tuck on all three courts to set itself on course for a monumental result. Bashaw and sophomore Ariel Danziger won the last four games of their second-flight match to snatch an 8-3 decision, and the captain tandem of junior Christine Palazzolo and senior Stephanie-Jane Seabra prevailed, 8-4, on the third court.
Sophomores Ashley Nguyen and Aileen Bevard were down a break at 4-3 after losing three straight games at first doubles, but roared back to claim the next four games en route to an 8-5 triumph.
All three doubles teams were locked in 4-3 battles before taking command late in the pro set.
Bevard was dominant at third singles, cruising to a 6-1, 6-2 rout to improve to 9-1 in dual matches and put Ursinus on the precipice of a rare win against Haverford. The Bears had lost 5-4 three times over the previous 34 setbacks, most recently in 2009, but Bashaw made sure they got over the hump this time around, eking out a 6-1, 4-6, 10-6 slugfest at second singles to clinch the long-awaited victory.
Danziger notched a 6-3, 6-4 win at fourth singles, and Palazzolo joined her as a double winner with a 6-4, 6-0 decision in the fifth flight.
Seabra stretched her dual-match win streak to six with a 9-7 result in a pro set at sixth singles.
The Bears head to Alvernia for a non-conference match on Thursday before rejoining CC play with a home showdown against 12th-ranked Johns Hopkins, which has won the last nine league titles, on Saturday.
