SWARTHMORE, Pa. - The Haverford College's women's tennis team (11-8) faced off against the 23rd-ranked Swarthmore (15-2) in the semifinals of the Centennial Conference women's tennis tournament on Friday afternoon. The match was played indoors at the Michael L Mullan Tennis Center on the Swarthmore campus due to rain and wind. Despite its best efforts, Haverford fell to Swarthmore 5-1.
In the doubles competition, Haverford's regionally-ranked pairing of Rachael Fitzgerald and Abbey Russano faced off against Erica Stutz and Nathalie Williams, but ultimately lost at the top doubles flight, 8-3.
In the third-flight doubles match, Abhishree Menon and Summer Williams were unable to secure a victory, falling to Spencer Watts and Oviya Kumaran 8-4. However, Haverford's Mimi Lavin and Ellie Esterowitz managed to win a close match against Swarthmore's Crystal Xu and Kathleen Shiffer, taking the match to a tiebreaker and ultimately securing an 8-7 victory to send things to singles after salvaging much of the momentum of the match, which was played on just three courts.
In the singles competition, Swarthmore proved to be too strong for Haverford, jetting out to an early lead. Kumaran defeated Fitzgerald 6-2, 6-2 in the third singles match, while Nathalie Williams defeated Esterowitz 6-1, 6-2 in the first flight singles match. Lara Geib secured a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Summer Williams in the fifth flight singles match, giving Swarthmore the victory in the second round of matches to hit the courts.
In the second singles match, Haverford's Russano put up a strong fight against Shiffer, but the match was unfinished after Russano rallied from the brink, with the score at 6-4, 4-6, 6-6 as Russano had designs on putting another tally in the Haverford side of the ledger.
Similarly, in the fourth singles match, Lavin was unable to finish her match against Swarthmore's Lola Diaz, winning the first set 6-3, before trailing 4-3 in the second when the match was clinched.
Despite the loss, Haverford put up a strong fight against the nationally-ranked Garnet, with Lavin and Esterowitz securing a key victory in doubles competition. Russano and Lavin also put up a strong showing in their respective singles matches. However, Swarthmore proved to be a bit too strong overall, securing their victory and advancing to the conference finals to face off against top-seeded Johns Hopkins on Sunday.
While the loss is undoubtedly disappointing for Haverford, they can be proud of their performance against yet another tough opponent. The Fords will now await next week's individual selections to the NCAA Championships, as Ellie Esterowitz is in contention for an individual bid as the third-ranked singles player in Region III.