Women’s Tennis earns win while men fall to Georgetown

BY CHRIS MARKHAM

The University of Mary Washington’s men’s and women’s tennis teams both enjoyed highly successful matches this past weekend against top notch opponents.

The Eagles, nationally ranked on both the men and women’s side, flexed their muscles and aced their opponents as they head toward the CAC championships.

On the women’s side, the 21 nationally ranked Eagles competed in the Blue-Grey Invitational at the Battlegrounds over the weekend, ending the competition on a high note. The Eagles then faced off against U.C. Santa Cruz on Sunday, looking to improve on their performance from the previous two days.

UMW started off Sunday with a pair of double victories. Lindsay Raulston and Shelby Harris of UMW had a strong showing with an 8-6 win. Ashley Barrow and Alex Ritter also picked up a victory in the doubles category. The tandem beat Monika Prokes and Kassondra Heacock of Santa Cruz 8-1.

Harris said the win was a great confidence booster since Santa Cruz is a team who has beaten many other teams. in the division.

“The win is promising for the team for the upcoming weeks especially since we are about to go into the conference tournament,” she said.

The Eagles won five of the six singles matches in the competition and two of three doubles matches to down the Santa Cruz banana slugs by a score of 7-2.

Additionally, after her performance over the weekend, Raulston recieved the honor of the CAC Women’s Tennis Player of the Week. Raulston went 3-0 in her matches in the invitational as she continues to lead her Eagles in exemplary fashion.

After losing 6-3 against 19 ranked Skidmore College on Friday, the Eagles cruised past Oberlin College on Sunday, winning 9-0. The results pushed the Eagles’ overall record to 9-6, as they remain ranked 21 in the national poll and sixth in the region.

Although the men suffered a loss over the weekend, many positives can be taken away from it. The Eagles faced off against an extremely tough Division I Georgetown team on Sunday, suffering a 6-1 loss to the Hoyas.

The lone victory recorded by the Eagles came from Brandon Griffin in the singles six spot, defeating Max Nova 6-3, 6-0. Apart from Griffin’s match, most of the matches were closely contested.

Daniel Khanin of Georgetown, beating Tyler Carey of UMW 6-4, won the singles match in the one spot 7-5. Carey also competed in the one spot of the doubles competition along with Evan Charles, losing by a score of 9-7, providing valiant efforts against highly formidable opponents.

The loss pushes the Eagles’ record back to 12-4 as they continue to sit at 17 in the national poll and are fourth in the region.

The lady Eagles have a busy weekend ahead of them during UMW’s Spring Jubilee, as they play host to York College of Pennsylvania at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 4 and then go up against Penn State-Harisburg later in the evening. On Saturday, UMW will travel to Salisbury to take on the Seagulls at 4 p.m.

The men’s team also has a busy weekend at Spring Jubilee with a slew of home matches. UMW will face off on Friday against Christopher Newport University at 3 p.m. followed by Penn State-Harrisburg at 6. On Saturday, the men face off against York at 10 a.m. followed by Swathmore at 2 p.m.