The Hopkins women’s tennis team, ranked number one in the nation, had a busy weekend on the courts with both their Centennial Conference opener and a rematch of the championship of the ITA National Indoor Championship three weeks ago. They defeated Haverford on Saturday with a final score of 7-2 and then beat eighth-ranked Carnegie Mellon 5-4 on Sunday. The top ranked Hopkins team improved to 6-0 on the season and 1-0 in conference play.
Referring to the promising start of the season so far, junior Stephanie Herndon said, “Our team has a lot of enthusiasm and has been working really hard on the court and in the weight room to make sure we are prepared to give our best fight against any opponent. We have several tough matches in the next few weeks, but I think we are ready.”
The Lady Jays opened their Centennial Conference competition on Saturday in Pennsylvania against Haverford. They captured two out of three doubles matches and dominated the singles matches, picking up five out of six points there. In the 7-2 victory over the Fords, all five of Hopkins’ singles points came in straight sets.
After dominating on Saturday, the Jays had a top ten match up on Sunday with the eighth ranked Tartans of Carnegie Mellon at Mary Washington College. In this rematch of the ITA championship, Hopkins opened up the match taking a 2-1 lead after the doubles matches. Junior Stephanie Rettig expressed how important the match was for the success of the team moving forward.
“Our match against Carnegie Mellon was a huge battle, and it was definitely the closest match we have had so far this season," she said. "There was so much energy and cheering from both sides of the crowd. We all believe in each other so much, and this is very important when the match is nearly as close as it can get. We have so much motivation and support for each other as teammates, and we really showed that this past weekend.”
The number three doubles team of Rettig and Herndon took Brooke Tsu and Elizabeth Martin into a tiebreaker with an 8-8 tie before winning the tiebreaker 7-5 and claiming the match 9-8 (7-5), which later would prove to be a critical point for Hopkins.
The Jays and Tartans split the six singles matches with Hopkins getting points at the one, two and three spots while Carnegie Mellon took the matches at the four, five and six spots. Of the six singles matches, two of them went to three sets while the other matches were decided in just two set.
At the number five singles match, Martin topped Herndon 7-5, 4-6 and 6-0, drawing the Tartans even with the Jays.
Senior captain Hallie Hogan then took on Tsu in the third singles match, which eventually proved to be the deciding match in the competition. Hogan picked up the first set 7-5, getting an early lead in this key match. Tsu bounced back with a 6-3 victory in the second set before Hogan clinched it in the third set taking a 7-5 victory. Hogan sealed both the individual and team victories.
“Our team is the best it has been in years, and I personally think that we have a chance at going all the way this year," Hogan said. "Everyone is working hard and staying focused. As a captain, I am so pleased with how the season is going and am excited for the months to come.”
The weekend was a big one for Hopkins, as the Lady Jays picked up both their conference opener and a top ten victory. Herndon said, “We had two big wins this past weekend — one against Haverford to assert our authority as leader in our conference and another against our non-conference rival Carnegie Mellon, ranked 8th in the nation. We had already beaten Carnegie in the finals of the National Indoor, and beating them again secured our spot as a top team in the country. It was an incredibly close match, coming down to the last singles match, but our team fought hard and came out with the W.”
The top-ranked Jays continue their season on March 28, in a match against Oberlin. The match is slated to start at 4:00 p.m. and the Lady Jays look to remain unbeaten.
