W.Tennis serves up opponents

The Hopkins women’s tennis team has certainly started the season off with a bang, winning the National Indoor Tennis Championship and holding the national #1 ranking. With their championship win behind them, the Lady Jays took on Centennial Conference foe Bryn Mawr College this past weekend, and another school with a great engineering reputation, Carnegie Mellon University.

Both schools offered differing levels of competition, but one thing remained constant throughout the weekend: the Lady Jays would not be denied victory.

First up was Bryn Mawr, and from start to finish, the Owls were no match for the Jays. Hopkins took care of the Owls early and swiftly, as Bryn Mawr won a single game in all three of the doubles matches.

The second doubles pair of junior Andrea Berlinghof and freshman Olivia Kasten smothered the Owls, winning in perfect fashion, 8-0. First doubles was almost equally as impressive, yielding just one game to win 8-1. The perfection would not stop with Berlinghof and Kasten though, with the number two pair of doubles partners of Lauren Fields and Kara McDonough winning easily by a score of 8-0.

After a 3-0 showing in doubles, the Lady Jays wanted to command the court from the get-go in singles. Sophomore Shannon Libaw kept the notion of perfection, but the overall team win was clinched and sealed by freshman contributor Kasten. Kasten downed her opponent 6-0 6-1 to ensure the victory for the Lady Jays.

When asked about the match against Bryn Mawr, Kasten seemed to be very encouraged with her team’s annihilation of their opponent:

“It was great to start off our conference play at home with such a commanding win,” Kasten said. “I'm excited about our prospects for the season and am looking forward to continuing our winning streak on Wednesday against Franklin & Marshall."

Out of all nine matches for the day, Bryn Mawr was only able to manage eight games.

Carnegie Mellon turned out to be a different beast for the Jays as their March 31st matchup came down to the wire. Not only was this a matchup of two top-10 teams, but it was a rematch of the Indoor National Championship.

Hopkins dropped the doubles matches by a total of 2-1, with the Tartans taking an early overall team lead over the Blue Jays.

Junior Abby Clark and sophomore Stephanie Rettig were able to pull through for Hopkins, as they won their doubles matchup 8-6 to keep pace with the Tartans.

However Hopkins would enjoy success in singles competition, as the Blue Jays were the ones standing on top in the end. The start to the singles matches was very similar to the doubles matches, as Carnegie Mellon took the early lead by defeating sophomore Elaine Baik and junior Hailey Hogan.

With big performances needed, Hopkins had to turn to the 4 through 6 players, and it paid off in the end.

First up was talented freshman Sydney Lehman at the number four spot, who won convincingly 6-0, 6-2. Rettig, the number five singles player for the day, won her match in landslide fashion as well with a 6-1, 6-2 win.

With these two victories, Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon were in a team tie, with one match to go to send one team home happy. Junior Abby Clark fought through a gutsy effort from her opponent, but in the end put away her opponent for the win, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, giving the Tartans the narrow 5-4 win.

After the win Abby Clark expressed feelings of happiness not only directed toward her teammate’s effort against Carnegie Mellon, but also regarding the future of the season.

“The match against Carnegie Mellon shows just how strong Hopkins women’s tennis has become,” Clark said.

“Everyone practices hard and competes hard. It's always a team effort and it really shows in close matches like the one against Carnegie,” Clark said, continuing her positive commentary. “Hopkins tennis has already made its presence known this season and I am excited to see our hard work bring continued success.”

The Blue Jays are in action Saturday and Sunday against two divisional opponents, Ursinus College and Haverford College.