SANFORD, Fla. - The Haverford College women's tennis team (2-0, 1-0 CC), receiving votes in the latest ITA Coaches Poll, picked up its first victory of their spring break trip, defeating North Central (Ill.) (2-3) on Monday, picking up a commanding 6-3 victory at Sylvan Lake Park in Sanford, Florida.
The Fords zipped out to a quick 3-0 lead, by winning all three doubles matches out of the gate. To begin doubles, the team of Summer Williams and Rachael Fitzgerald dispelled the pair of Mikayla Edquiban and Kate Herlihy by an 8-3 final.
The pairing of Abbey Russano and Ellie Esterowitz quickly went up 7-2, before securing an 8-5 victory over the team of Natalie Bassett and Abigail Penados. In a match that was knotted at four games each, the duo of Mimi Lavin and Emily Oh used a late push to get past the team of Kensington Payne and Anastasia Bozovic, 8-5.
In the top flight of singles play, it was Penados who got the better of Russano (7-5, 5-7, 1-0) in a grueling match that just ended two minutes shy of the two-hour mark, to get a point on the board for the Cardinals.
The second flight saw the exact same draining conditions, as Esterowitz earned the victory over Bassett (2-6, 6-4, 1-0) in a match that lasted one hour and 58 minutes.
After winning set one 6-0, Fitzgerald ended up dropping the next set 7-6 (7-3 tiebreaker), to head into the final set deadlocked at one set each. Fitzgerald dropped the super tiebreaker 10-4, as Payne defeated Fitzgerald (0-6, 7-6, 1-0) to put the second point of the day on the board for North Central.
Over in flights four and five, a pair of victories for Lavin (defeated Edquiban 6-2, 6-3) and Oh (defeated Nina Patience 6-2, 6-2) secured two more points for the Scarlet and Black, to make the score 6-2.
In flight six, Bozovic got the better of Haverford's Annie Barrett (6-1, 2-6, 1-0) to put the third and final point on the board for the Cardinals.
Next up for Haverford on their spring break trip, is a two-match slate on Tuesday, March 12, as the Fords will challenge Division I Colgate at noon at Red Bug Lake Park in Casselberry, Fla., before returning to Sylvan Lake Park to take on Hope at 6:30 p.m.