COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College women's tennis team gave nationally ranked Johns Hopkins a fight in their Centennial Conference match on Saturday afternoon, taking two singles matches the distance and battling on the other courts in an abbreviated 6-0 final.
The Blue Jays, ranked 14th in Division III and 4th in the Atlantic South Region, moved to 13-5 overall and a perfect 8-0 in CC play, while the Bears dropped to 11-7 overall and 3-6 in the CC. The match was played indoors and called at the conclusion of the first three singles matches.
Junior Ariel Danziger and freshman Caitlyn Sorelle nearly upset Chrissy Simon and Anna Kankanala at first doubles, going stroke for stroke before coming up on the short side of a 9-7 thriller. Playing together for the first time, junior Aileen Bevard and freshman Kiley Addis lost 8-5 at number three against Sunaina Vohra and Prerna Singh.
All three singles matches were highly competitive, but especially in the top two flights – each of which went to a third-set super tiebreaker. Bevard claimed the first set 6-3 at number one against Simon, who responded with a 6-2 win in the second and a 10-5 triumph in the breaker.
Sorelle, meanwhile, edged out a 7-5 first-set marathon opposite Kankanala before her Hopkins counterpart forced a winner-take-all tiebreak with a 6-2 win in the second set. Sorelle fell two points shy of downing Kankanala.
Danziger took the second set to a tiebreaker against Amanda Soo Ping Chow at number three singles, ultimately conceding a 6-0, 7-6 (3) tally.
The women's tennis team concludes its season at home against Bryn Mawr on Wednesday, April 26.