HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College women's tennis team was edged out in a hard-fought 5-4 decision against regionally-ranked Wilkes on Saturday afternoon inside the Alumni Field House. In a contest that came down to the final match on court, the Colonels (11-1) came through to give the No. 19 team in the Atlantic South Region a victory over the regional No. 12 Fords.
Missing several individuals throughout the lineup, the Fords (3-3) were still able to claim two of the three doubles points. The Colonels earned the first point of the afternoon with the win at No. 3 doubles. However, Haverford won the top two positions to claim an early advantage.
Evening the team score at one-all, Jia-Ling Tuan and Courtney Ahmed secured an 8-3 victory in the middle doubles slot. The tightest match of the doubles action came in the top slot. In that position, Robyn Himelstein and Abby Payson collected the needed games late to hold on in an 8-6 victory.
Singles started off with three of the first four matches on court going to a decisive third set. Wilkes tied the match with a victory at No. 2 singles and took its first lead of singles action with another straight-set win at No. 5 singles.
In a crucial swing of momentum, Ahmed went up a set early as she took control of the No. 4 singles match with a 6-1 score. However, her opponent came back with a 6-3 second set before putting her team on the brink of victory with a 6-2 third set win.
Tuan and Himelstein each recorded their second victories of the afternoon after helping the team claim earlier doubles points at No. 3 and No. 1 singles. Tuan needed extra points to win her opening set. She would do so with a 7-6 (5) advantage to go up early. After her opponent evened the score following the second set, Tuan pulled through in the end with a 7-5 third set win.
Himelstein also kept Haverford's chances of winning alive as she prevailed in three sets. Like Tuan, the Fords' lone senior won her first and third sets. She went up 6-4 early, but an extra-game 7-5 second set went the way of the Colonels' top player. Nonetheless, Himelstein rebounded with the most convincing set of her match, winning 6-2. With the team score tied at four-all, Wilkes claimed the No. 6 singles match to walk away with the victory.
Today's match was the final test before Centennial Conference action gets underway for the team. Women's tennis will test its conference mettle against the nationally-ranked Blue Jays next Saturday, March 26 at 12 p.m.