Women’s Tennis Team Serves Way to 4-0 Record

by Ian Haynes

First-year Beck Buurma’s opponent couldn’t buy a shot this past Saturday as Buurma shut her down 6-2, 6-0 helping the Oberlin women’s tennis team defeat Hope College 5-4.“[Buurma] was on fire. She didn’t miss on her passing shots,” Coach Don Hunsinger said.

(photo by Laura Paley)

In doubles play the Yeowomen took two of the three possible points. The first doubles team of junior Sarah Jesse and sophomore Alaina Fotiu-Wojtowicz easily handled their opponents, winning 8-2.
Oberlin’s second point came in an 8-5 victory from second doubles, which had senior Beth Krupski teamed with Buurma. The third doubles team of sophomore Laura Koehn and junior Lindsay Butler lost 8-2, making the score 2-1 going into singles play. “Coming out of doubles I was confident we could win three matches and possibly four in singles play,” Hunsinger said.

With all the singles matches going on at the same time on separate courts, the Yeowomen needed to win just three matches to defeat Hope.
In first singles, Jesse’s streak of perfect sets ended, but she still shut down her opponent, winning in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0. Fotiu-Wojtowicz also defeated her opponent in straight sets, 7-6 (1), 6-3, for the point in second singles.
Hope kept their chances alive when Krupski fell 2-6, 1-6 in third singles. With three singles matches still to go, Oberlin needed just one point to shut the door on Hope. That point came in fourth singles as Buurma crushed her opponent in straight sets, giving Oberlin the fifth and final point needed for the win. “[Buurma] definitely was the star of this match,” Fotiu-Wojtowicz said. “She kicked the crap out of her opponent.”

Koehn fell 2-6, 2-6 in fifth singles and Butler battled in sixth singles but eventually lost 6-3, 0-6, 6-7 (7). “[Butler] had many opportunities to win her match. She had three match points and one tie-break, but just couldn’t quite do it,” Hunsinger said.

The win moved the Yeowomen’s record to 4-0 on the season. The women’s tennis team travels to Hiram next Wednesday to take on the Lady Terriers in the first North Coast Athletic Conference match of the season.

The men’s tennis team traveled to Crawfordsville, Ind. this past Sunday to take on Wabash College. Senior Ben Fox and sophomore Jay Criscione were both unable to make this trip with the Yeomen. It was a long day on the courts for the men as they fell 7-0 to the Little Giants.
“Wabash is a very solid team and will do well in the conference this year. We should have been able to compete with them and not have those types of numbers,” Assistant Coach Adam Shoemaker said.

Wabash swept all three doubles matches by scores of 8-3, 8-0, 8-1 in first, second and third doubles respectively.
In first singles, first-year Jamie Frankel fell in straight sets 3-6, 5-7.
Senior Mike Shelton moved up from third singles to second singles for the match but fell in straight sets 1-6, 1-6. First year Marion Bocek also moved up from fifth singles to third singles and lost 0-6, 1-6.
Stepping into fourth singles was junior Rich Raz, who had yet to appear in a match this season for the Yeomen. He lost in straight sets 1-6, 2-6. Sophomore Ashvin Raj stepped into the fifth singles spot from his normal sixth singles spot but also fell in two sets 0-6, 1-6. Sophomore Matt Fairbanks played sixth singles for the Yeomen but fell 3-6, 1-6 in straight sets.

“The men have been on a roller coaster so far this season. They either play really well or really poor as a team and a lot of it is due to the fact that half the team has very few college matches under their belts,” Hunsinger said.

The men will take on Mount Union tomorrow at home before opening their conference season next Wednesday at home against Hiram.