EWING, N.J. - The Haverford College women's tennis team (7-7) faced off with local rival No. 40 TCNJ (9-3) in a thrilling non-conference match on Thursday afternoon in the Garden State, coming away with a narrow 5-4 victory.
The two teams battled it out on the courts in a back-and-forth match that had fans on the edge of their seats. With both teams looking to come out on top in the inter-regional test, the stage was set for an exciting and intense competition.
In the doubles portion of the match, Haverford was able to secure one win out of the three matches played. At the second flight, Mimi Lavin and Ellie Esterowitz came out of the gates strong and defeated Alexa Vasile and Chase Eisenberg with a score of 8-3. Despite that opening victory, Haverford lost the other two matches of the doubles dound. At the first flight, Charlotte Roarty and Jenny Landells were able to defeat Abbey Russano and Rachael Fitzgerald by a score of 8-5. At the third flight, Anusha Rangu and Aira Abalos defeated Summer Williams and Abhishree Menon with a score of 8-4. With that result in hand, TCNJ took a 2-1 lead heading into the singles portion of the competition.
Haverford's Summer Williams set the tone for the singles portion of the match with a dominating performance against TCNJ's Chase Eisenberg, winning 6-1, 6-1 at the fifth flight. Williams really never let Eisenberg find her rhythm in a strong showing. In the fourth flight singles match, Rachael Fitzgerald continued the team's winning ways with a solid 6-3, 6-2 victory over Anusha Rangu. Haverford was now in the lead 3-2 after grabbing results in the first two singles matches to hit the court.
Despite Haverford's early success, Charlotte Roarty was able to pull off a win against Haverford's Abbey Russano at the top flight, prevailing with a score of 6-2, 6-1. In the second flight singles match, Ellie Esterowitz defeated Aira Abalos with a score of 6-3, 6-1. Esterowitz was able to dictate play and put pressure on Abalos throughout the contest, moving Haverford to the brink of a clinch.
Haverford's Mimi Lavin faced a tough challenge in the third flight singles match against Alexa Vasile, dropping the first set, 6-3 However, Lavin showed great resilience and fought back to win the second set 6-1. In a closely contested third set superbreaker, Lavin emerged victorious with a score of 10-8, clinching the match for Haverford.
In the final singles match, Jenny Landells was able to secure a win against Sriya Krishnan in another hard-fought battle. Landells lost the first set, 6-3, but was able to come back and win the second set in a tiebreaker with a score of 7-6 (8-6). In the third set, Landells continued to play aggressively and took the match in a superbreaker, 10-4.
Haverford again showed great resilience in their comeback performance against TCNJ, earning a well-deserved midweek victory. Their solid performances in singles matches, particularly from Williams, Fitzgerald, Esterowitz, and Lavin, proved to be the key to their success.The Fords return to action on Saturday, continuing Centennial Conference action at Franklin & Marshall. Action is slated to begin at noon in Lancaster.