Women dominate the Southern swing

The women's tennis team continued their dominance over Spring Break, winning three meets before losing their first meet of the year, a hard-fought 6-3 loss to Carleton College. They returned with a 9-1 loss against Kenyon Thursday.

Kenyon, one of the nation's top teams, relinqueshed a victory only to Oberlin's powerful number-one doubles team of senior co-captains Leigh Ann Totty and Tara Sievers. Torry and Sievers won a hard-fought match 8-7 (7-5). In singles, Totty at first seed captured the lone set, but lost a three-set heartbreaker 6-4, 0-6, 3-6.

The team journeyed down to Florida for the break, first stopping over to play a match at Maryville College in Tennessee on March 21. The women won 9-0, not losing a single set. Their first meet in Florida came on March 23 against Otterbein College, and the women won by a count of 8-1. The next day saw a much tougher opponent in Grinnell College. Fortunately, the Grinnell squad had to forfeit the number-six singles and number-three doubles matches, leading to a 5-4 Oberlin victory. The women were not so lucky the next day, however, losing to Carleton and forfeiting a match of their own. In the last meet before Spring Break, a home match against John Carroll University, the women prevailed by a score of 6-3.

The southern swing saw continuations of season-long trends for the women, with solid play from all seeds. First-seed and senior co-captain Leigh Ann Totty kept up her stellar play, not losing a single set between her John Carroll and Grinnell matches. She lost just her second match of the season in an epic 3-6, 6-3, 3-6 battle with Carleton's Melissa Rohrer.

Junior Jill Brockelman moved between second and third seed through the trip, but was equally impressive at both positions. She lost her first match of the season in the Carleton meet, also in a three-set affair to Carleton's Liz Ames. Sophomore Claudia Martinez played four matches at second singles, losing but once, to Grinnell's Christine Calton. Senior co-captain Tara Sievers remained unbeaten for the season, winning her lone third-seed match to go with three fourth-seed victories. Both Brockelman and Sievers, however, would lose their Kenyon matches.

The number-one doubles team of Totty and Sievers blew away the competition, losing only to Grinnell's Hulda Grin and Amy Kaufman by the narrow margin of 8-6. The Grinnell meet was also the lone loss of the season thus far for the second doubles team of Brockelman and Martinez.

The women next play Saturday at Wittenberg University at 4 p.m.