ORLANDO, Fla. - The Haverford College women's tennis team (1-2) picked up its first win of the 2023 dual match season on Wednesday, taking down Rochester in an afternoon matchup by a 6-3 final, after dropping a 6-3 decision to No. 27 Kenyon in the morning matchup at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.
No. 27 Kenyon 6, Haverford 3
Against the Owls of Kenyon, the Fords fell behind early as Kenyon took all three doubles flights. The top flight pairing of Rachael Fitzgerald and Abbey Russano took Eleni Lazaridou and Eleni Dakos to a tiebreak before falling 8-7 (8-6) in a notable performance to wrap up the doubles portion of the match.
As singles started, Lazaridou outlasted Russano by a 6-1, 6-0 final and Allaire Berl got past Ellie Esterowitz (6-1, 6-2) at the top two flights. Summer Williams notched a victory over Lalasa Nagireddy to put the first tally in Haverford's side of the column at number five, and Fitzgerald then brought the Fords to 5-2 with her 6-3, 6-1 victory over Catriona MacIntosh at the fourth.
The Fords got their third match win of the morning as Mimi Lavin took down Dakos at the third flight (6-4, 6-3) before Natalie Connelly registered a win over Sriya Krishnan at the sixth flight (7-1, 7-6 [7-4]).
Haverford 6, Rochester 3
Haverford returned for afternoon action against a formidable Rochester side, but did well to take two of three doubles pairings against the Yellow Jackets with the Lavin/Williams pairing registering an 8-5 win and the Erika Phanord/Abhishree Menon duo taking down an 8-3 victory.
Moving into singles up 2-1, Haverford immediately came up against a strong opponent in the 25th-ranked player in the nation, Josephine Libby, as Libby was victorious over Russano (6-1, 6-1) at the top flight. Lavin put a tally into the Haverford ledger with her 6-4, 6-0 triumph over Sanjana Karnam at the second, and Annie Barrett logged her debut against Jaclyn Dron, prevailing by a 6-4, 6-1 decision at sixes. Fitzgerald outlasted Jasmin Toor (7-5, 6-3) at the third flight to clinch the hard-fought win for the Fords.
Williams was outlasted in a three-set thriller to Neha Dania, but Krishnan won for the Fords to reflect the 6-3 scoreline, taking down Stephanie Kim (6-3, 7-6[7-1].
Haverford now will look to ride the momentum of its first win of the season into another day of action on the spring break trip as Haverford returns Thursday morning with an 8:30 a.m. first serve against North Carolina Wesleyan on the docket at Lake Cane Tennis Center.