BALTIMORE – Renata DiDonato won for the Haverford College women's tennis team at No. 6 singles against nationally-ranked Johns Hopkins on Saturday. Unfortunately for the Fords, that was the only match they were able to come away with a victory in as the Blue Jays won by an 8-1 score.
Saturday's contest was a rematch of last year's Centennial Conference Championship and pitted the last two remaining unbeaten teams in the Centennial Conference standings against each other. With all good things eventually coming to an end, the Fords' (7-5, 5-1 CC) first Centennial Conference defeat this year snaps a program-record 10 straight Centennial Conference regular season victories for the team dating back to last season. Each of Haverford's five defeats this spring have come against nationally-ranked opponents.
DiDonato went up quickly in her singles match as she won the opening set by a 6-1 score. The Fords' senior did eventually come away with a straight set victory, but needed a tiebreak after a much tighter second set to do so. After splitting the first 12 games in that set, DiDonato won the extra points by a 7-4 advantage, securing her fifth win this year in singles play. Today's victory was her third in Centennial Conference play.
Haverford won games during each of the other five singles matches as well. The closest the Fords came to taking a set in the top five matches was at No. 3 singles where Clara Farrehi dropped a hard-fought 6-4 second set as her opponent handed the Fords' co-captain her first CC defeat in singles this spring. Farrehi is now 6-1 in singles against conference foes. The tightest match of doubles came in the third flight as Sarah Evenson and Claire Johnson were downed by an 8-4 score.
Women's tennis closes the regular season this week with three home matches. The first two matches this week will give Haverford a chance to win its first match against a nationally-ranked opponent as the Fords host No. 25 Swarthmore (Tuesday, 4 p.m.) and No. 37 TCNJ (Friday, 4 p.m.). The Fords and rival Garnet are currently tied for second place in the conference standings and Tuesday's match will determine the higher seed for the conference tournament. Haverford closes its regular season next Saturday against Dickinson at 12 p.m.