When we last saw the women’s tennis team, it was 5-2 heading for a stretch of four big matches in two weeks. While we were studying for finals and sunning and drinking in Mexico, Arizona or wherever, the team went 3-1, including one win in the CCAA.
Guardian
The first match for the women was against Emory University of Georgia. The match was close from the beginning, but the Tritons pulled out a close 5-4 victory in the end.
Emory was strong at the top, winning at both No. 1 and No. 2 singles, but the Tritons’ depth won out in the end.
From there, UCSD moved on to play the University of Denver. This was another nonleague opponent with a strong upper echelon of players.
The Tritons won only one of the three doubles matches, that being a victory at No. 3 by Mary Hung and Ashley O’Neil.
Things didn’t look much better at the top of the singles matches, as O’Neil fell 6-0, 6-2 at No. 1 and Lyndsay Tadlock lost 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2 singles. Depth again came through for the Tritons, though, as the bottom four singles players all won their matches to spurn UCSD on to a 5-4 victory.
The match came down to the No. 5 singles match where Julie Westerman pulled out a third set tie-breaker after also winning the first set to win the match.
“”I honestly don’t remember playing [Denver and Emory] before, so I personally didn’t have any expectations going into the match,”” said Melisa Liao, the Tritons’ No. 3 singles player. “”It just so happened that they were indeed very good teams, and luckily we were able to pull through to victory.””
From there the going got rough for UCSD, as the Tritons ran into Williams College of Massachusetts.
Williams is one of the strongest Division III teams in the country and the Tritons knew this would be a tough task, as they lost to Williams last season.
UCSD could manage only a win at No. 1 singles by O’Neil and at No. 5 singles by Hung in its 7-2 defeat.
“”I knew going into the match that they were going to be really tough,”” Liao said. “”We lost to them last year 3-6. We were prepared for some tough competition, of course, the week off of practice didn’t help.””
In the match, Liao injured her calf in the last game of her singles pro set and was unable to play in the singles part of the competition.
In its final match over the break, UCSD tore up league opponent Cal Poly-Pomona 8-1. The Tritons’ only loss of the match was at No. 1 doubles in a close-fought battle.
From here UCSD goes on to play one more away match before the end-of-the-year CCAA tournament and the NCAA tournament. Good luck, Tritons.
