ORLANDO, Fla. - The Haverford College women's tennis team (0-1) opened up the 2023 season with a morning match against RPI in the first day of competition on the spring break trip to the Central Florida area. Haverford fell in the lid-lifter, dropping a 7-2 decision to the Engineers (5-1) at Lake Cane Tennis Center.

Haverford, ranked ninth in the Atlantic South, battled against blazing hot temperatures on Monday, opening up doubles action with a key victory as the pairing of Mimi Lavin and Ellie Esterowitz got past Rani Jones and Alex Mednikova by an 8-4 final. 

The top-flight doubles pairing of Abbey Russano and Rachael Fitzgerald were downed in a tiebreaker, falling to the nation's eighth-ranked doubles pairing of Nikki Ridenour and Laura Flores Gonzalez 8-7 (7-3). Tied at 1-1 heading into the final doubles flight at number three, Haverford's pairing of Abhishree Menon and Summer Williams was edged by Sabrina Grewal and Masha Karach as the Engineers headed into singles play with a 2-1 lead.

Flores Gonzalez got a win over Lavin in straight sets (6-4, 6-3) at number three to open singles play, and Ridenour then triumphed over Russano (6-2, 7-5) at the top flight to put RPI on the brink of a clinch. Haverford rallied back with Ellie Esterowitz grabbing the victory over Mednikova at the second flight (7-5, 6-1), but the match was eventually clinched at sixes as Grewal got past Sriya Krishnan in three sets (6-4, 4-6, 6-4). Brooke Bauer was a winner at the fifth flight over Williams (6-3, 2-6, 6-4) while Rani Jones took the fourth flight matchup from Fitzgerald (2-6, 7-6, 6-2). 

Haverford now has a day off from competition before jumping right back into a busy day on Wednesday with matchups against No. 27 Kenyon (8 a.m.) and Rochester (3 p.m.) at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.