Court number two at the Heisman Field House was not kind to the Big Red women's tennis team on Thursday night. That was where freshman Carol Vitellas suffered an injury at the fifth singles flight, which resulted in a 5-4 victory for Oberlin over Denison.
With the match tied at 4-4, the Denison freshman forced a third-and-decisive set after rallying for a 7-6 victory in the second. Vitellas jumped out to the early lead and maintained it for the majority of the set, which included a 3-1 advantage when she suffered an injury at the net that brought an end to the marathon match. Vitellas was the second DU player forced into retirement with an injury on that court. Earlier in the match, Courtney Brown suffered an injury in the second set at No. 2 singles.
The Big Red trailed the Yeowomen by one after dropping two of the three doubles matches. After dropping the third flight 8-5, Denison's freshmen tandem of Rochell Issa and Brown tied things up at 1-1 with an 8-5 win over Mayada Audeh and Erin Johnson at No. 2 doubles.
With two flights down, the final point was contested at the top flight between DU juniors Taylor Hawkins and Meg Chiumento and the Oberlin pairing of Grace Porter and Sarah Hughes. Down 7-4, Hawkins and Chiumento rattled off four-straight points to take an 8-7 lead. Porter and Hughes would win the next point to force a tiebreaker. The OC team went on to win the breaker, giving the home team a one-point lead heading into singles play.
Oberlin extended its lead to 3-1 when Audeh was awarded a win at second singles when Brown was forced to retire in the second set. Chiumento and Hawkins would even the match at 3-3 with victories at the third and first flights, respectively. Chiumento shrunk the deficit to one with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Jackie McDermott, while Hawkins' straight-set (7-6, 6-2) decision over Porter tied the contest.
Issa gave DU its first lead of the night with a three-set win over Emma Brezel No. 4 singles. The DU freshman took the opening set 6-3, while Brezel matched her in the second. The third-and-final set was also a 6-3 decision in favor of Issa. Erin Johnson tied the match once again with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Maddie Boster at sixth singles, setting up the wild finish.
Denison (11-5) returns to action this weekend with a pair of home matches on Saturday and Sunday. The Big Red opens the weekend against Allegheny on Saturday at 2 p.m. before playing a North Coast Athletic Conference West Division match against 14th-ranked DePauw on Sunday at 10 a.m.
