SANFORD, Fla. - The Haverford College Women's Tennis team (3-1), receiving votes in the latest ITA Coaches Poll, split a pair of matches on day two of spring break matches, as Haverford battled Colgate (7-6) in Casselberry, Florida and Hope (6-2) in Sanford, Florida.
Colgate 4, (RV) Haverford 3
In a match that went by Division I scoring rules, doubles play began the matchup. In doubles play in Division I, only one point is awarded overall to the team who wins two out of three doubles matches.
To begin the day the team of Carina Cristobal and Gigi Bohan defeated Emily Oh and Mimi Lavin 6-1. In the first flight, the pairing of Ellie Esterowitz and Abbey Russano turned away Amelia Galin and Sophia Montero 7-5. In the third and decisive match, Avery Issac and Eliza Podlas got the better of Summer Williams and Rachael Fitzgerald 7-5, to put one point on the scoreboard for the Raiders.
In a highly competitive slate of singles play, Cristobal increased Colgate's lead to 2-0 after defeating Esterowitz 6-2, 6-1. However, the Fords gained some momentum and leveled the score at 2-2, as Russano claimed a singles victory over Amelia Galin 6-2, 6-2, and Lavin prevailed over Sasha Herman 6-1, 6-2.
After dropping the first set to Summer Williams, Colgate's Podlas won back-to-back sets to defeat Williams 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, giving Colgate back the lead at 3-2. Oh was involved in a three-set thriller as well, but was able to turn away Bohan 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, to even the score at 3-3 to set up an all important final match between Fitzgerald and Addie Eklund.
Fitzgerald gained the early advantage winning the first set 6-3, before dropping the next set to Eklund 6-3 to force a decisive third set. After going up 2-0 in the final set, Fitzgerald found herself deadlocked at 4-4 with her opponent with the match on the line. Eklund was able to rattle off the remaining two games of the set and pick up the crucial victory 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, to give the Raiders the narrow 4-3 win over Haverford.
(RV) Haverford 7, Hope 1
In a bit of a change to kick things off, both teams played singles to start out, as opposed to doubles.
Mimi Lavin helped the Fords get off to a quick start, defeating Annika Weeber 6-1, 6-4, to get the Scarlet and Black on the board 1-0. Fresh off her singles victory against Colgate, Abbey Russano took down Amanda Lopykinski 6-1, 6-1, to extend Haverford's lead to 2-0. Making her spring break debut, Abhishree Menon bested Miyako Coffey 6-1, 6-2, to earn the third point for the Fords.
Just like Menon, Erika Phanord competed in her first match of spring break, prevailing over Hope Rhoades 6-1, 6-3. In the second flight, Ellie Esterowitz was the victor over Sullivan Moran 6-3, 6-2, to push the score to 5-0. Hope College got on the board after a victory from Madison Wei ,as she conquered Annie Barrett 7-5, 6-3, to chip away at the Haverford lead, 5-1.
Over in doubles play, the team of Lavin and oh made quick work of Coffey and Weeber, defeating them 8-3 in just over 25 minutes. In the first flight of doubles action, Esterowitz and Russano claimed a victory over Lopykinski and Moran 8-5, in a heavily contested battle.
The final match of the day ended incomplete after Williams and Sriya Krishnan led Wei and Phoebe Walker 5-3.
After a day off Wednesday, the Fords return to action on Thursday, March 14, at 2:30 p.m., as Haverford will battle Trinity at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida. A live stream will be available via the USTA National Campus website.