<< Front page Sports March 5, 2004

Road proves hard for women’s tennis

Life on the road can be harrowing. The Oberlin College women’s tennis team learned that the hard way this past Saturday as they dropped a close match to the Cardinals of Otterbein College, 5-4, despite some excellent individual play.

The match started in what seemed to be a positive way for the Yeowomen. The number one doubles team was up 3-0 and number three doubles was running away with their match. While the number two doubles misfired, there was hope because their teammates were up at the other two positions. In a couple of minutes, the whole match turned for the home team. Otterbein came back and won eight of nine games at one doubles to win a convincing 8-4 decision. Three doubles took their match, 8-5, but Oberlin trailed two to one heading into singles play.

“The play was very inconsistent,” head coach Don Hunsinger said. “We have some very good play in doubles at times.”

As singles play commenced, the Yeowomen needed to win four of six points to win the match. The third and fourth spots were won by junior Jessica Hauser and senior Whitney Reichheld with identical 6-3, 6-3 scores. Sophomore Kate Lurain also won a convincing 6-1, 6-0 decision at sixth singles to push her record to 3-0.

For the first time this season, the upper part of the singles lineup struggled. Junior Ary Amerikaner and first-year Bianca Barr failed to rebound in singles and lost their matches.

Sophomore Lesley Farber dropped a close 6-4, 6-3 decision to give the match over to the home Cardinals.

Despite the loss, assistant coach Adam Shoemaker thought that the Yeowomen have improved.

“I was surprised,” he said. “I thought we had a very good chance at beating Otterbein. The women have improved. They have put in some good work. They have also gotten better in certain aspects of the game.”

Hunsinger took responsibility for the loss.

“It was a very inconsistent performance,” he said “There was good effort and bad coaching.”

While Oberlin lost, they are looking forward to getting back to the courts this weekend. Oberlin will host Capital University on Saturday and Earlham College on Sunday. Both matches will start at 9 a.m. at the Heisman Fieldhouse.


 
 
   

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