Photo credits: Amanda Shulman
Quinnipiac women’s tennis backed an impressive performance against No. 37 Yale with a 7-0 sweep of Holy Cross on Saturday.
“I think we did well yesterday,” Quinnipiac head coach Mike Quitko said. “We played an incredibly good team and I think we put it together and did what we had to do today.”
The sun was shining as play began with a set of doubles matches in the early afternoon. The team of Mary Wilson and Adrienne Markison ran through their match to an 8-1 victory in front of a strong Quinnipiac crowd. Quinnipiac’s second doubles team, Rachel Cantor and Sarah Viebrock, had their Holy Cross opponents on the run all match as they closed with an 8-2 win.
The third doubles team for Quinnipiac, featuring Natalie Duckor and Shawna Sarson, fell behind early 3-2, but had the support of their team cheering them on at the end. The entire Bobcat squad was on the court cheering for Duckor and Sarson, and they responded by reeling off six straight games to win 8-3.
With the defeat, Holy Cross fell to 2-6 for the year as Quinnipiac moved to 6-3. Despite losing 7-0 to Yale on Friday, Coach Quitko called it one of the most impressive performances thus far and expected a tough match from the Crusaders.
“Holy Cross got a lot of balls back and played real tough,” Quitko said. “They made us earn it and I think we did.”
In singles action, the No. 1 singles match had Wilson squaring off against Kristen Meahl. Wilson, a senior, started out strong with a break and a quick 2-0 lead. Meahl’s serve started to force some errors in the third game and the two began trading games back and forth. Wilson began to adjust her game and picked her spots well. Instead of going for the winner early in the rally, Wilson used more top spin and lob shots which gave Meahl trouble. As Meahl backtracked during the rally, Wilson set up for a smash ace and took control of the match. Up 5-3, Wilson put the set away on the back of her serve and finished ahead 6-3.
In the second set, Wilson and Meahl battled early on, but Wilson got her power serve on track and won the match decidedly. Up 2-1, Wilson smoked a winner cross court to take the game and followed with an uncontested break off Meahl’s serve. Three devastating serves down the middle gave Wilson three easy points and a forehand winner to her left gave her the game. Wilson won on three deep forehands that forced Meahl’s forehand into the net and resulted in a 6-3, 6-1 victory.
Quinnipiac posted strong showings in the remaining five singles matches. Cantor posted her second victory with a clean sweep 6-0, 6-0. Markison defeated Emily Marr 6-1, 6-0 and Viebrock also won her second match of the game. Duckor won her single match and the second of the day, 6-3, and 6-1. Lisanne Steinert won her only match 6-3, 6-1.
The Bobcats will take on Bryant on March 28 in their next match as they look to make it two victories in a row.
“We have to keep getting tougher and keep getting patient,” Quitko said. “And not let one mistake turn into six mistakes. Just let one mistake be one mistake and move on. I didn’t see it a lot today which is very encouraging.”
