The women’s tennis team started the spring season Wednesday with an 8-1 loss to No. 10 University of Chicago in a high-profile matchup of nationally ranked teams. They then followed up with a 0-9 loss to Division II program University of Indianapolis.
Chicago started the match with a victory in No. 3 doubles, but the Tigers notched the score up with a victory at No. 2 doubles where first-year Meredith Breda closed out the game with a backhand winner to give her and junior Alyssa Seneviratne the win.
“Meredith and Alyssa played very well,” sophomore Ali Bush said. “They showed that they can compete against anyone in the country.”
The No. 1 doubles pair of seniors Gretchen Wilder and Maddie Lee could not pull off the come from behind victory when they retook a 7-6 lead but came up short with a 7-9 loss.
Wilder believes their doubles pairs need to continue to work on their cohesiveness and work on playing with each other. “It’s tough because we have a couple freshmen playing significant playing time and most of our doubles have never played together,” Wilder said. “The more these pairs work together, the more they will improve.”
The team then lost all six of their singles matches. The first four flights lost in straight sets, where Lee fell 7-5, 6-3; Wilder fell 6-1, 6-3; sophomore Ali Bush lost 6-4, 6-3, and Seneviratne lost 6-1, 6-1.
“I didn’t play as well as I could have,” Bush said. “But this was our first match of the season. I need to come to practice every day with the motivation to get better and hope to have better performances than I did this past weekend.”
Sophomores Colleen Morris and Megan Galle represented the team’s fifth and sixth flights respectively and each took their opponents to three sets, but both came out on the losing end to conclude the match. Morris lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, while Galle fell 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
“All we can do is look to our next match,” Bush said. “Indianapolis is a tough Division 2 team that will challenge us. We are looking forward to the opportunity.”
The Tigers fell to 1-1 with the loss, while Chicago improved to 5-0.
The Greyhounds of Indianapolis were just as tough of a matchup at Chicago. Number one doubles Lee and Wilder, number two doubles Breda and junior Alyssa Seneviratne, and number three doubles sophomore Sarah Wilder and Galle all lost their matches. As well as the losses in doubles, Lee, Gretchen Wilder and Bush all lost their singles matches.
The team falls to 1-2 on the season while Indianapolis improves to 5-1. The women go back into action Friday against Centre College.