LAKE NONA, Fla. (March 14, 2023) – The No. 29 Denison University women's tennis team continued its Spring Break action in Florida on Tuesday and started the day with an 8-1 win over Coe College. Then in the evening session, Denison turned its attention to a top-30 matchup against No. 18 Southwestern University that saw the Big Red sweep the doubles matches and go up 4-1 before ultimately earning the 5-3 victory over the Pirates.
Denison (8-2 overall) took a 2-1 lead after doubles against Coe (11-4) as
Hannah Quick and
Sofia Zafiropulos won 8-2 in the top spot and
Anna Leach and
Alessandra Ceccarelli won 8-1 at No. 3 doubles.
At No. 2 doubles, however,
Elizabeth Hoo and
Kennedy Herring led 6-3 before falling by a score of 8-7 (7-4) in a tiebreak at the end.
In singles against the Kohawks, Denison rolled as Quick (No. 2 singles), Hoo (No. 3 singles) and Ceccarelli (No. 5 singles) all won without dropping a point.
Lastly,
Caroline Kittle (No. 1 singles) and Leach (No. 4 singles) both won 6-1, 6-2 while Herring won 6-2, 6-1 at No. 6 singles.
In the matchup against Southwestern (7-2), Denison got off to a great start in doubles as
Monique Brual and
Caroline Lopez won 8-4 in the No. 2 spot.
Then both
Sydney Cianciola and
Sarah Robertson (No. 1 doubles) and
Kendall Schrader and
Peyton Oda (No. 3 doubles) won by scores of 8-4 as well to make it 3-0 Big Red.
Zafiropulos won 6-2, 6-3 at No. 6 singles to pull the Big Red to within a point of winning up 4-1, but the Pirates threatened to steal the match, winning at No. 5 and No. 3 singles, winning the first set at No. 1 singles, and forcing a third set at both No. 2 and No. 4 singles.
After Southwestern pulled to within 4-3 overall, Robertson dug down deep and was able to gut out a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 three-set win at No. 2 singles to clinch the victory for the Big Red.
On the final day of its Spring Break trip to Florida on Thursday, March 16, Denison will take on the fourth-ranked team in NCAA Division III, Wesleyan University, starting at 11:30 a.m. at the Lake Cane Tennis Center in Orlando.
