Andreas Jeninga/The Hoya Freshman Nora Gardner dropped both her matches last week as the women’s team fell to UMBC and Connecticut.
In recent contests the Georgetown men’s tennis team has played well while the women’s team has struggled, and that trend continued this week. The women lost both their matches to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the University of Connecticut this week while the men won their match against Connecticut this weekend.
On Tuesday the women went to UMBC to take on the Retrievers in a match that had been rescheduled after being rained out. Again in poor weather conditions, the Hoyas could not keep up with the Retrievers, who dominated the match and easily won 6-0.
Because of the rain, wind and low temperatures, the singles competition was played first, with doubles scheduled to be played only if necessary to break a tie. As it turned out, doubles play was not needed because UMBC swept the singles matches and clinched its overall win on the day.
In singles, however, the Hoyas did not go down without a fight. Seniors Jordan Botjer and Lara Madonia both battled for three hours with losing efforts, both taking their matches to three sets. adonia was able to win her first set 7-6, but her opponent, Retriever sophomore Ale Pedergnana, fought back to win the next two matches 6-2, 6-2.
Sophomore Kristen Dew and freshman Sana Malouf both also competed well in their losses, playing long two-set matches.
On Saturday the Hoyas returned home to face the Connecticut Huskies in Big East play.
In cold and wet conditions again, the women did not perform as well as they had only a few days earlier and fell to the Huskies 6-1.
The Hoyas started the day off on the wrong foot, losing all three doubles matches. The negative momentum carried over into singles where the women dropped all but one of their matches.
Plagued by unforced errors, the Hoyas lost the match more than the Huskies won it. Botjer’s No. 1 singles match, among others, could have easily gone the other way if she had played as well as she had in previous contests.
Dew was the only Hoya to pick up a win on the day, defeating Connecticut freshman Christi Lazar in a close match 4-6, 6-2, 10-7.
“It was disappointing,” Head Coach Rich Bausch said of the women’s performance Saturday. “We were playing in similar conditions, but we had three times as many unforced errors as Tuesday.”
The men, also facing Connecticut on Saturday, were able to handle the Huskies and the poor conditions better than the women, coming out on top of their contest 6-1 and improving their conference record to 2-3.
The men began their match with a clean sweep of the doubles competition, their third doubles victory in a row. Doubles has become one of the men’s team’s strongest points this season who, with the win Saturday, improved to 4-1 in doubles competition in the Big East.
Coming out of doubles, the Hoyas continued to dominate the Huskies, clinching the match win by taking the first three contests on the afternoon. Freshman Kevin Killeavy at No. 3 singles was the first to finish out his match, winning 6-2, 6-3. Sophomore Eric Conrad and senior Dennis Cravedi finished their matches soon after, sealing the Hoyas’ victory with four team points. Freshman Scott Faust and junior Erik Bildman both won their matches as well, with the team’s only loss coming at No. 4 singles where freshman Eddie Carver took his match to a third-set tiebreak.
“There was never a moment where the guys were in danger of losing the match,” Bausch said.
The men and women next face local rival Howard University today on the McDonough Courts at 3 p.m.