First-year Megan Galle returns a serve while assistant coach Bill Pndl looks on. The Tigers trumped Ohio Wesleyan Friday 8-1 including Galle and and first-year Colleen Morris’s 8-1 doubles win. SAM CARAVANA / THE DEPAUW
The women’s tennis team split its two matches this weekend against NCAC West conference opponents, Wittenberg and Denison University.
The No. 22-ranked Tigers fell to the 23rd-ranked Big Red 5-4 earlier in the day, but turned it around to finish Saturday with a 9-0 win against Wittenberg.
“We had great energy as a team the whole day," first-year Megan Galle said, "and we're all starting to become more consistent and stay in points longer."
In the match against Denison, DePauw took an early lead, inching ahead 2-1 with the help of No. 2 doubles team consisting of sophomore Alyssa Seneviratne and first-year Ali Bush and No. 3 doubles team with first-years Megan Galle and Colleen Morris. The two doubles pairs each won their matches 8-5.
With DePauw trailing 4-3, the final two match-ups boiled down to No. 2 and No. 6 singles. At No. 2, Seneviratne fought back in her second set, but lost the match in the second set tiebreaker. Galle at No. 6 was able to close the match with scores of 6-3, 4-6, and 6-1.
“Coming into the match with Denison, we knew it wasn't going to be easy and every spot had to play at their best level," said first-year Nicole Pamphilis. “Every player stepped up their game in doubles and in singles. No one gave up or was fatigued at any point of their matches.”
Strong performances were showcased at No. 4 singles, where Ali Bush dominated 6-0,6-3.
In their second match of the day, the Tigers were able to bounce back from the rival loss and dominate with a 9-0 win.
“We feel like we were able to play our game and maintain a high level of play throughout the match. We started off strong in doubles and then we were able to carry that intensity over to singles as well, so we feel really good about it,” said Galle.
Junior Gretchen Wilder echoed similar sentiments.
“The win against Wittenberg was a nice confidence boost after a tough loss earlier in the day," she said.
Playing in the same spots from the earlier match, the ladies combined to drop just three games throughout the contest. No. 2 dropped one game of the set and junior Maddie Lee went 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 singles. Every other player managed to go 6-0, 6-0.
After these two matches over the weekend, the Tigers close their regular season with an overall record of 9-10, and a North Coast Atlantic Conference record of 2-1.
The team heads into conference tournament play on April 28 and will be spending the next week maintaining their conditioning and working hard to improve as a team. Additionally, the team will be participating in a charity event on April 24 from 12-4. To support their head coach, Scott Riggle and The Riggle Foundation, the team will be providing free tennis lessons from 12-4 and then hosting a doubles tournament from 4-5 to raise money for Parkinson’s research. The event will be held at the DePauw tennis courts.