After a 10 a.m. alumni match, the No. 15 ranked Hopkins women’s tennis team fought through the inevitable fatigue to sweep the Bryn Mawr Owls and the No. 24 ranked Christopher Newport Captains.
“The team’s mindset was really to just put everything on the court, no matter win or lose,” sophomore Kimberly Zou said. “We knew we had a lot of tennis to play, so we really tried to mentally prepare for that as well.”
The Blue Jays faced off against the Bryn Mawr Owls to start off Saturday’s double-header. Hopkins generated momentum with a quick 3-0 lead.
In first, freshman Sophia Strickland and Zou earned a speedy victory after defeating the Owls’ Eram Haider and Sydney Kim in only eight games.
At second, sophomores Katie Gauch and Chrissy Simon went up against the Owls’ Caroline Horvatits and Lizzie Siegle.
The Hopkins duo won 8-2. Freshman Prerna Singh and junior Sunaina Vohra also scored an 8-2 victory over the Owls’ Mariam Haider and Julia Holeman at third.
Vohra nearly recorded a perfect day, losing only one game in her pair wins. She defeated Kim 6-0, 6-1 at third singles. Senior Anna Kankanala ended up finishing the match in the same, nearly-perfect way, winning 6-0, 6-1 over Horvatits at fourth.
Two more Blue Jay victories followed with Strickland defeating Siegle with a 6-4, 6-2 victory at first and Gauch defeating Mariam Haider with a 6-3, 6-0 victory at fifth.
The Owls’ Alice Podolsky recorded Bryn Mawr’s only point of the match with a 6-3, 7-5 win at sixth over sophomore Mika Inadomi.
Next, the Blue Jays faced the Christopher Newport Captains, who quickly gained a 3-0 lead after winning all three doubles matches.
The set of duos for the Jays, made up of Kankanala and senior Ashnaa Rao, junior Caroline Greydak and senior Jody Law, and Strickland and Zou, could not keep up with their Christopher Newport opponents.
Nevertheless, Hopkins was able to bounce back after their three consecutive losses and win five of six singles matchups.
Rao started the team’s comeback run, winning 6-3, 6-2 at first. Despite a loss at second, the Blue Jays followed with four more victories by Strickland, Zou, Simon and Greydak.
“Caroline [Greydak]’s match against Christopher Newport was key,” Zou said. “She had some really great points towards the end, especially under the pressure of having to clinch for the team. She hit a couple really amazing forehands.”
Defeating the Bryn Mawr Owls in 15 back-to-back matches, the Jays advance their all-time record against Bryn Mawr to 20-2.
Meanwhile, their face-off against the Captains was the first in program history.
Hopkins tallied a crucial comeback win to start off their record against Christopher Newport in their favor.
“Considering the amount of tennis we had to play, I was amazed by everyone’s unwavering ability to fight through and win their matches,” Zou said.
After picking up the pair of wins on Saturday, the Jays are rolling on a six-match winning streak, which will certainly serve as motivation moving forward.
“The team’s goals for this season is to try and go as far as possible in [the NCAA tournament], hopefully make it to Elite 8. So far, we have gotten really close as a team and hope it will translate on the court as well,” Zou said.
Overall the Blue Jays are 8-3 and 4-0 in the Centennial Conference. Hopkins has not lost a Centennial Conference game in more than 10 years.
They will attempt to keep this phenomenal streak alive when they travel to Allentown, Pa. this weekend to face off against the Muhlenberg College Mules. The matches are scheduled to start at noon on Saturday, April 8.
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