HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College women's tennis team moved into the Centennial Conference semifinals with a 5-0 win over Ursinus on Wednesday evening. The Fords (15-4) swept through doubles play before picking up two convincing singles victories against the Bears (14-7).

Haverford's victory moves the team into the conference semifinals for sixth time in the last seven years. Up next for the Fords will be a semifinal matchup with top-seeded Johns Hopkins. That match will take place Saturday at 3 p.m. and be a rematch of last year's Centennial Conference Championship.

The Fords got the early jump with strong play in doubles on Wednesday. Assuming their top doubles slot, Caitlin Gallagher and Robyn Himelstein picked up their 13th win of the spring season together as they allowed just one game to their Ursinus opponents. Haverford quickly went up 2-0 with an 8-3 win at No. 2 doubles. Jessica Liu and Greta Koch earned their seventh win in 10 matches together in the middle slot.

Abby Payson and Kristen Andersen made it a clean sweep of doubles with a late rally to take down the No. 3 position. The win was the pairing's third victory in five matches together. Trailing early, Andersen and Payson knotted the score at eight-all, forcing a tiebreak. In the extra points, the Fords' third pairing came out a 7-4 winner.

Playing at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, Himelstein and Payson quickly clinched the match in singles action as each allowed just two games. Playing in the fourth slot, Payson won by identical 6-1 scores for her 15th victory of the spring. Himelstein was right behind her with a 6-2, 6-0, victory for the fifth and final point of the evening. She now has a team-leading 16 wins on the season.

Playing the match to decision, the other four matches on court stopped when Himelstein locked down Haverford's fifth point. At that time, the Fords were winning three of the remaining matches on court. Gallagher was up 2-0 in her second set after a 6-2 opening set victory. Koch was a single game away from victory - up 5-1 in the second - after a 6-3 win in the first set. Jia-Ling Tuan was up 3-1 in the second after a 6-4 win in the first set.

Saturday's Centennial Conference semifinal contest with the nationally-ranked Blue Jays will be a rematch of the March 21 contest on the road for the Fords. Johns Hopkins was ranked No. 1 in the country at the time and took all nine matches. However, the Fords did collect games at each of the nine positions and sent one of the singles matches into a 10-point tiebreak.