After a loss to the St. John’s Red Storm in its first Big East competition last weekend, the Georgetown women’s tennis team (3-2, 0-1 Big East) will host crosstown rival George Washington (2-1) at Yates Field House Courts Sunday at 6 p.m.

Head Coach Gordie Ernst is looking forward to the matchup.

“We always have great matches with them — it’s always a rivalry, there’s no other way to say it,” Ernst said.

Georgetown and George Washington play regularly, meeting in this and last year’s Georgetown Classic. In their last regular season meeting, the Hoyas defeated the Colonials in a 4-3 decision.

“It’s always a very competitive match, but there is definitely a lot of respect between the two teams,” sophomore Victoire Saperstein said.

The match gains much more significance considering that it will be played at Yates. The team is only allowed a single match on those courts yearly, so the Hoyas are working hard not to disappoint.

“GW is going to bring a lot of energy and loud cheering to Yates and we’re going to have to match that energy,” freshman Casey Marx said. “Being at home will be a bonus because of all the energy our friends will bring.”

Over the course of the week, the Hoyas have devoted practice to tightening up doubles play and improving on fitness. Because the doubles matches are played first, success in those contests often determine the tone of the match. Especially for Georgetown, doubles play tends to make or break the rest of the competition.

“We’ve been working a lot on doubles,” Ernst said. “In the James Madison match, we barely won the doubles point, and for St. John’s we lost the doubles point almost instantly. … We’ve been trying to find the right doubles combinations, so we’re working a lot more on doubles.”

Succeeding in this competition would help Georgetown bounce back from its loss in against St. John’s last weekend. Even though the Hoyas dropped the match 6-1, the tight competition in singles play made the match much closer than it appeared on the scoreboard. However, the team does not bear the St. John’s loss in mind heading into the contest with GW.

“They’re not dwelling on that loss at all,” Ernst said.

Marx added that she is redirecting her focus on the challenges ahead.

“You just have to learn from your loss and work on the things you might not have done well,” Marx said. “Personally, I have to forget about the past and just worry about my next match and what I can do to improve and get a better result. We have to make sure to keep our energy positive.”

GW will take on Navy (5-2) the day before its match against Georgetown. Most recently, GW lost to James Madison in a 5-2 decision at home. Georgetown beat James Madison 4-3 just a week beforehand. However, those results will not alter the Hoyas’ mindset.

“Anything can happen on any given day, so we have to stay focused and not let anything get to our heads,” Saperstein said.

“No matter what, we have to be ready to compete and fight our hardest,” Marx said.
The location of the match is key, for being in such close proximity to campus and cheering fans is encouraging for the Georgetown squad.

“It’s going to be an exciting match, and I know that our team would be able to thrive on positive energy from our friends and peers,” Marx said.

Like Georgetown, GW is also a very young team. With three freshmen, three sophomores and two juniors, the overall strength of the Colonial squad certainly comes from its youth. Freshman Teodora Radosavljevic remains unbeaten in singles play and will potentially face off against Saperstein in the number one singles slot. Freshman Marie-Louise Decamps has also performed well; she is currently 2-1 in singles play in 2015.

“They have some very strong young new players so it should be very competitive,” Saperstein said.

The match will begin at 6 p.m. on Sunday at the Yates courts, and the team is looking for fans to make an appearance.

“We would love to have as much support [as possible] from the Georgetown community,” Saperstein said.