The women’s tennis team fared well this weekend, Oct. 3-5, in a series of dual matches against Williams, Case Western Reserve and Army while hosting the Middlebury Invitational on Friday-Sunday, Oct. 3-5.
Middlebury did not take the court until Saturday when it squared off in its first dual against Case Western Reserve, winning four out of six matches in singles. Lily Bondy ’17 got the team going with a win in straight sets over Sarah Zargham 6-1, 6-0. Alexandra Fields ’17 was somehow able to top Bondy’s performance, winning in straight sets and not conceding a single game to her opponent, Marianne Bonanno. Katie Paradies ’15 continued the theme of dominance by defeating Surya Khadilkar 6-3, 6-0. Kaysee Orozco ’17 suffered a tough, three-set defeat to Nithya Kanagasegar 6-2, 3-6, 11-9, and Jennifer Sundstrom ’17 fell in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 to Michelle Djohan.
The Panthers’ doubles pairs, however, could not get it going against the Spartans, and failed to record a victory in any of their three matches. The duo of Orozco and Sundstrom fell to Bonanno and Djohan 8-5. Bondy and Fields posted the same result, losing to Surya Khadilkar and Kanagasegar 8-5. The tandem of Paradies and Shannon Gibbs ’18 could not give the team its first win in doubles either, dropping the set 8-3 to Zargham and Nina Cepeda.
On the third and final day of the tournament, Middlebury matched up against Army. The success in singles carried over from the previous day as three out of five players won. The doubles pairings bounced back from a disappointing outcome on Saturday to win half of their six matches.
Orozco was able to battle back after losing her first set against Elle Taylor to triumph in an epic third set that took 20 games to declare a winner.
Sundstrom wasted no time in dismissing Aly Hall in straight sets 6-0, 6-1. Gibbs seemed to get stronger as her match wore on, sweeping her second set en route to a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Molly Prins. Bondy did not return to her form of the previous day, falling to Carolyn Pitman 6-4, 6-1. Paradies also suffered defeat in straight sets, but that does not tell the full story as she lost by a total of three games 7-6 (4-0), 7-5 in a very tense match.
Since time allowed, the Panthers were able to play six doubles matches on Sunday, allowing for Coach Mike Morgan to mix up his pairings. Orozco and Bondy joined together to triumph 8-6 in a tight set only decided by two games. Another new pairing of Gibbs and Sundstrom also won, and did so with ease, winning 8-4. Then Sundstrom and Orozco returned to their normal tandem and combined for the team’s third doubles win of the day, beating Taylor and Nancy Porter in dominant fashion 8-1. The other novel coupling of Fields and Paradies did not yield similar results, as they failed to win a game against Taylor and Porter on the Army squad. The original pairings of Fields/Bondy and Paradies/Gibbs also fell, both dropping their sets 8-3.
The team will have this week to rest and prepare before heading to Mount Holyoke the weekend of Oct. 17-19, to compete against fellow New England teams in the NEWITT Invitational.
