LAKE NONA, Fla. (March 11, 2024) – The No. 25 Denison University women's tennis team continued its Spring Break action in Florida on Monday night and earned a narrow 5-4 win over North Central College that came all the way down to the final singles match.
Denison led 2-1 after doubles as
Peyton Oda and
Caroline Kittle defeated Mikayla Edquiban and Kate Herlihy 8-1 at No. 3 doubles and
Kendall Schrader and
Caroline Lopez defeated Kensington Payne and Anastasia Bozovic 8-4 at No. 2 doubles.
It would not be the last win of the day for Lopez.
In singles, Denison fell at both the No. 1 and No. 5 positions before Kittle earned a 6-0, 6-4 win in the No. 3 spot over Payne to tie the match at 3-3.
Both matches at No. 2 and No. 6 singles then went to third-set super tiebreakers as
Dasha Chistyakova won 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-3) victory Natalie Bassett at No. 2 singles to make it 4-3 Big Red, but then Schrader came up short 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-5) to Bozovic at No. 6 singles to bring up the deciding match.
In the final match at No. 4 singles, Lopez was just able to pull out the second-set victory in tiebreaking fashion, earning a 6-3, 7-6 (6-3) decision over Edquiban to clinch the team victory for the Big Red.
With the win, Denison was able to get to .500 for the first time on the season at 5-5 while North Central fell to 14-4. It was the third season in a row the Big Red and the Cardinals have met up during Spring Break in Florida.
On day three of its Spring Break trip on Tuesday, March 12, Denison will take on Franklin and Marshall College starting at 7 p.m. at the Lake Cane Tennis Center in Orlando, Florida.
