Now that March Madness is over, your attention can be steered back to Hopkins. While the basketball games may have been nailbiters, so were our Lacrosse games! You may walk by the tennis courts every day, and like me, wonder “how is the tennis team doing?" Well, I’m here to answer those questions and spread the love for all sports.
Men’s Tennis: W(4 - 2), W(4 - 2), L (2 - 4)
The men’s tennis team traveled down to Virginia for two separate invitationals. Starting on Friday, they faced No. 22 Pomona-Pitzer. The Blue Jays’ second and third doubles pairs both secured wins, clinching the points. Hopkins also took the singles points. Senior Allen Gong, sophomore Mukundh Boopathi and junior Chakor Rajendra beat their opponents and propelled the Jays to victory. Later on Friday, Hopkins faced Swarthmore. The Garnet pulled ahead early after two of their doubles teams defeated the Jays, but Blue Jays didn’t let this pressure break them. On the singles side of play, Gong, Rajendra, Boopathi and sophomore Jason Li took down the Swarthmore men’s team. After this first day of play, Gong became tied for 10th in program history for singles wins and Rajendra only needed one more win to reach 100 combined wins.
In their third and final competition of the invitational, Hopkins fell to Carnegie Mellon. In doubles, only one pair managed to come out on top, that of sophomores Brian Yi and Dylan Blenkiron. In singles, the Jays managed to win two — the matches played by Gong and Rajendra. Even more exciting, this result allowed Rajendra to become the second player to reach 100 career wins this season, the first being Gong.
Women’s Tennis: W (5 - 2), L (3 - 4)
All the way in Atlanta, the women’s tennis team swung their rackets to both a win and a loss. Starting off the day against No. 38 Christopher Newport, No. 6 Hopkins dominated in both doubles and singles. Singles competitors took five out of the six, securing the points for Hopkins easily. Only two of the six matches went to three sets, and junior Lia Melvin managed to come back after losing her first set and take the whole match. On the doubles side of things, the pairs of fierce women won every single match.
A few hours later, Hopkins took to the courts again, this time against Emory. While we may have lost, we certainly didn’t go down easily. In fact, Hopkins actually won doubles, with their first and third pairs. In singles, two out of four matches were secured by senior Kamila Wong and sophomore Sahana Madala.
Women’s Lacrosse: W (13 - 6)
On Sunday, the women’s lacrosse team took to Homewood field to face Big 10 rival Michigan. Double digits to single digits, and twice as many points scored by the Jays. The score itself shows our dominance. You may be surprised if I tell you that at the beginning of the game Michigan was leading.
Junior Lacey Downey scored not a hat-trick, not four goals, but a whopping five. As a team, Hopkins shot a total of thirty-one goals to Michigan’s twenty-two. Three different Hopkins players had two assists, and two other players also had two goals. Another surprise, Hopkins had less draw controls, and still was able to maintain the majority of possession. This was due in a large part to a strong defense and nine saves by goalie Ashley Langdon.
Men’s Lacrosse: L (6 - 7)
The men’s lacrosse team competed in their weekly Saturday game, the time in Columbus against Ohio State. This result places both teams 2-2 in conference play, leaving one more conference game before a possible tournament showing. The Jays started off strong with back-to-back goals from junior Hunter Chauvette. The lead didn’t last long, as Ohio State scored the next four straight goals. By the end of the third quarter, Ohio State was up by only one goal. By the last minute of the fourth quarter, Ohio State had two points on the Jays. With remarkable timing, Hopkins junior Chuck Rawson found the back of the net a second time, and shrunk the deficit to only one goal. A strong save by the opposing team’s goalie snubbed out Chauvette’s next and final attempt at tying the game and sending it to overtime.
Hopkins faithful, next weekend is homecoming! This is arguably the most exciting game of the year for the Jays, as the rivalry with Maryland has lasted over 100-years. Student ticket sales have ended but you can still buy a ticket at the door. The game is expected to sell out, so make sure to get there early.
