DePauw Women’s tennis team ranked No. 26, fell to No. 11 NAIA foe, Indiana Wesleyan University, last Wednesday. The final score favored Indiana Wesleyan 6-3.
Junior Alyssa Seneviratne and first-year Meredith Breda opened the match by collecting a win of 8-6 at No. 2 doubles. After the strong start from the team, the lead slipped away and quickly turned into a loss.
“I felt as if the match got away from us,” said senior Gretchen Wilder.
After back and forth competition, the No. 1 doubles team, seniors Gretchen Wilder and Maddie Lee, lost the final three games of their match, 8-6. The No. 3 doubles team of sophomores Megan Galle and Sarah Wilder dropped their match 9-7 as well.
Gretchen Wilder said that the team anticipated competitive single play coming from the talented Wildcats. Indiana Wesleyan received three straight set wins from their ranked players.
“Singles wise, IWU was tough, so we have to give them credit,” Gretchen Wilder said.
DePauw sophomore Colleen Morris picked up a win at No. 3 singles while Seneviratne won a 10-game pro set in the No. 5 flight, respectively.
“We put up a good fight,” Gretchen Wilder said. “But it would have been a good team win if we could have pulled out a few more points.”
One of the tough aspects of this match was the fact that nobody on the roster had ever played Illinois Wesleyan before, and their style of play was difficult to adjust to at times.
“We had never played this team in past years,” Lee said. “So it was hard to predict what they might throw at us.”
Galle felt as if the team let some important matches slip away.
“We didn’t play our best,” Galle said. “But we know that losses like these will help us get better because they expose our weaknesses.”
With the loss, DePauw drops to 5-3 while the Wildcats improve to 19-6.
Lee says that the team is holding more individualized practices to work on different independent aspects of their game.
“With more focus on finishing out points and closing, we will definitely improve,” Lee said.
The team will be preparing to host Washington University this Friday before heading off to California for a pair of matches over Spring Break.