HAVERFORD, Pa. – Playing its final home match of the regular season, the Haverford College women's tennis team earned the right to host the opening round Centennial Conference Tournament match with a 7-2 in over rival Swarthmore Thursday evening. The latest win also guarantees that the Hood Trophy will stay at Haverford for another season.
Playing a Garnet squad (9-7, 5-4 CC) that the Fords (13-4, 6-3 CC) could very well end up hosting in their Centennial Conference first round matchup, Haverford took two of the three doubles points to open up the early edge. Switching over to singles, the Fords won five of the six matches to cap the night. The only Swarthmore win in singles came during a 10-point tiebreak.
Haverford got a quick start to the evening with a resounding 8-1 win at No. 1 doubles for Caitlin Gallagher and Robyn Himelstein. The Fords' No. 1 pairing moved to 11-6 on the spring season. They jumped up 7-0 before splitting the last two games for the eventual victory. Haverford's second point of the evening came at No. 2 singles where Jessica Liu and Greta Koch were 8-5 victors. Swarthmore salvaged its lone doubles point at No. 3 with an 8-3 victory.
The Fords quickly began to distance themselves from the Garnet with a pair of decisive straight set wins to start singles play. Himelstein completed her perfect 2-0 night by allowing just one game in the opening set to her opponent at No. 3 singles. Her win moved her to 14-5 on the year, including an 8-1 record in Centennial Conference play. Abby Payson was just as impressive in her win at No. 4 singles. She allowed just two games in the second set to her opponent during her 13th singles win of the season.
In the first wave of matches to hit the courts, the top two singles matches each went to a decisive 10-point tiebreak. Koch was the Fords' second double winner on the night at No. 2 singles. She opened her match with a 6-3 victory, but fell in a tiebreak during the second set. In the ultimate 10-point tiebreak, she collected a 10-8 advantage to seal the Haverford victory. Koch now has 13 singles wins on the year and is 5-1 in conference singles action. Playing No. 1, Gallagher opened her match with a dominating 6-0 blanking of Swarthmore's No. 1 player. Forced to play the 10-point tiebreak after a tough second set, Gallagher came up on the wrong side of the 10-5 decision.
With the match already decided, the Fords added two bonus wins in the final two matches on court. Jia-Ling Tuan allowed just three games during her 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 6 singles. Liu made it three Haverford players with wins in doubles and singles with her victory at No. 5. She opened with a 6-3 set victory and closed with a tiebreak victory, 7-6 (5). Liu now has 13 wins on the season, while Tuan's singles record sits at 3-1.
Women's tennis will head out on the road Saturday afternoon with a trip to Gettysburg scheduled for noon. That meeting with the Bullets marks the close of the regular season slate. The Centennial Conference Tournament will begin next week.