After dropping its first two matches of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Div. III National Indoor Championship, the women's tennis team toughed out a 5-4 victory late Saturday evening over No. 13 Chapman University.
DePauw finished seventh of eight squads – all ranked in the top 15 nationally – at the weekend tournament, hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn. The No. 15 Tigers are now 3-3 for the season.
"It was really good experience and a test to see where we were at, especially because it was so early in the season," said junior Kelly Gebert. "We performed well considering that our team is young, but it also showed us things that we need to work on."
In Friday's first round match, the Tigers suffered an 8-1 loss to third-ranked and top-seeded Emory University. The team's lone win came at No. 6 singles, as sophomore Elizabeth Young defeated Taylor Brant, 7-5, 6-4.
DePauw dropped a 6-3 decision to Gustavus Adolphus in Saturday morning's consolation semifinals. The seventh-ranked Gusties swept doubles play and jumped out to a 5-0 lead after recording wins at No. 3 and 4 singles.
Despite Gustavus Adolphus' commanding lead, the Tigers responded with strong play on several singles courts. Senior Janelle Arita split the first two sets with the Gusties' Sam Frank at No. 1 singles before prevailing in the tiebreaker, 11-9. Gebert followed with a 6-4, 6-4 victory on court two, and Young outlasted Megan Born in a third set tiebreaker at the No. 6 spot, 6-7 (7-9), 6-1, 1-0 (10-5).
The loss set up DePauw in the seventh-place match against No. 13 Chapman Saturday evening. The Panthers earned a win at No. 2 doubles before the tandem of freshman Meg Crowley and Young recorded an 8-6 victory on court three. Arita and Gebert added another point for the Tigers at No. 1 doubles, defeating Kelley Fox and Liz Lewis, 8-6. With the win, Arita and Gebert improved to 4-2 in dual match play and 15-3 overall this season from the No. 1 doubles position.
In singles action, Crowley cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 win on court four to give DePauw a 3-1 lead. Chapman picked up a point at No. 5 singles, but Gebert responded with a 6-0, 6-2 win at the No. 2 spot to make it 4-2.
On court one, Chapman's Lewis defeated Arita in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. But senior Tricia Wilks responded with a 6-3, 6-1 victory at No. 3 singles to clinch the 5-4 win and seventh place overall for the Tigers.
"I think we were able to put together a lot of things we were working on and it was a good win moving forward," Gebert said.
DePauw returns to action Thursday when it hosts Ferris State University at 4:30 p.m.
Arita says Thursday's match will be an opportunity for the Tigers to improve their play in doubles and jump out to an early lead, something the team struggled with at the ITA tournament.
"Hopefully we'll be able to be more aggressive in doubles again like we usually are," she said. "We've been playing since the beginning of February, so I think people are settled in and back into match-playing mode."