The Georgetown University men’s and women’s tennis teams picked up non-conference wins over the Mount Saint Mary’s University men’s team and the George Mason University women’s team April 10, before sweeping Villanova University in a dual match April 11. The victories give both teams a win streak to carry into their Big East tournaments in Cayce, S.C., which will begin Friday, April 17, for both teams.
Both teams won in dominating fashion Friday, as the women’s team (8-8, 4-2 Big East) trounced the Patriots (8-9) in a 4-0 win and the men (7-14, 3-3 Big East) defeated the Mountaineers (7-11) 6-1.
The women’s team had a perfect afternoon in Fairfax, Va., starting with the doubles point, courtesy of victories from senior duo Paige Gilbert and Ashley Kennedy at No. 1 and junior partnership Emily Novikov and Katie Garofolo-Ro at No. 2.
The Hoyas quickly won at No. 3, No. 4 and No.5 singles. Those three wins secured the overall match for Georgetown without having to finish any of the remaining singles ties. Sophomore Natasha Kavarana got her first singles win of the season at No. 5, winning the first set 6-0 before her opponent retired.
The men’s team was similarly successful in Emmitsburg, Md., winning 6-1 despite struggling at the start of the match. Sophomore James O’Sullivan and first-year Joshua Lamm-Bocharov’s 6-3 win at No. 2 doubles was Georgetown’s sole doubles victory, with No. 1 and No. 3 dropping their sets and the doubles point with them.
Doubles would be the only disappointment of the day for the Hoyas, however. Georgetown swept all six singles matches, starting with dominant displays from senior Arthur O’Sullivan and his younger brother James at the top of the lineup, who only dropped eight games combined in their straight-set victories.
Lamm-Bocharov also won in two sets at No. 3, and the back half of the lineup, made up of first-year Cyrus Zia, junior Hank Williams and graduate Burke Pablo, all cleaned up, tallying four bagels in six sets across their three victories.
The next day, Georgetown faced the Villanova women’s (11-9, 1-3 Big East) and men’s teams (5-15, 0-4 Big East) on senior day in College Park, Md., in two Big East clashes. The women clawed out a narrow 4-3 victory, while the men won comfortably Friday, 6-1.
Although the overall scoreline on Saturday was identical to the prior day for the men, the doubles results almost completely flipped. Arthur O’Sullivan and Zia, who were defeated 7-5 on Friday, came out 7-5 victors at No. 1 doubles, while Pablo and Williams pulled off a similar trick, winning their set at No. 3 6-3 after a 6-1 Friday loss to give Georgetown the doubles point. Because No. 1 and No. 3 both won, James O’Sullivan and Lamm-Bocharov did not finish their set at No. 2.
The O’Sullivan brothers delivered again at singles. Arthur Sullivan won 6-1, 6-3 at No. 1, and James O’Sullivan followed him up with a 6-2, 6-4 victory at No. 2.
Head Coach Freddy Mesmer said getting contributions up and down the lineup is important, but having his top two players win is especially encouraging.
“I feel great about how deep our team is this year, but it gives us even more confidence knowing that the top of our lineup is really coming into form as we head into conference play!” Mesmer wrote to The Hoya. “At the end of the day, our recipe is going to be strong doubles, and finding a way to put 3 other points on the board from anywhere in the lineup!”
Lamm-Bocharov triumphed 6-2, 6-1 at No. 3, his third overall victory of the weekend. First-year Jonah Hill won a thriller 5-7, 6-0, 1-0 (10-7) at No. 4, and sophomore Jacob Mann also won 6-4, 6-0 at No. 5. Pablo fell 7-6, 6-3 at No. 6, denying the Hoyas the sweep, but they still came out comfortably on top.
In the women’s match against Villanova, the Hoyas lost the doubles point, which meant they had to win 4 out of the 6 singles matches to emerge victorious. Chu’s comfortable 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 2 and Bhat’s similarly straightforward 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 4 brought the Hoyas halfway there, but Novikov and Garofolo-Ro both fell in three sets at No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, taking the Hoyas to the brink of defeat.
When the dust settled, it was the seniors who brought the match home for Georgetown. Kennedy came back to win her senior day match at No. 4 in three sets, triumphing 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, evening the score at three matches apiece.
The pinnacle of the day, however, was Gilbert’s performance. After going down 0-5 in the first set, Gilbert was able to win 2 games before finally losing the set 2-6. Those two games gave Gilbert a foothold, however. She started the second set on fire, going up 5-0, before her opponent came all the way back, forcing three match points; Gilbert saved all of them, and won the set in the tiebreak. Gilbert subsequently went down 0-4 in the third set, but dug deep to win the next 6 games in a row, taking her match and the overall one too, on what turned out to be a perfect senior day.
Mesmer said he talked with Gilbert after she went down 0-5 in the first set, making a plan which helped her win 7 of the next 8 games, before telling Gilbert to feed off her opponent’s struggles during the third set.
“Paige and I talked about being tougher than her opponent,” Mesmer wrote. “As the third set went on, I told her to look on the other side of the net and see how much her opponent was struggling physically and mentally. If she was able to push through another 30 mins, she would win the battle, and that she did!”
“I was very proud of her for staying tough and making such a great memory for herself on senior day!” Mesmer added.
After both teams’ 2-0 weekends, the men’s team will take a two-match win streak into the postseason, and the women’s team has an even more impressive four-match win streak. Both teams are the No. 4 seeds in their Big East Tournaments. The men’s team will play No. 5 seed Butler University (8-14, 2-4 Big East) April 17 at 9 am in the quarterfinal, while the women face the No. 5 seed University of Connecticut Huskies (11-7, 4-3 Big East) — whom they narrowly defeated in the regular season — at 1 pm.
