Women's Tennis Advances to 2nd Round with 4-1 Victory over W&M

Saturday, May 9

Chapel Hill, N.C.

9:00 AM

Dartmouth College

William & Mary

Women's Tennis Advances to 2nd Round with 4-1 Victory over W&M

5/9/2015 12:40:00 PM | Women's Tennis

By: Dartmouth

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The No. 31 Dartmouth women's tennis team continues to make history, first earning a bid to NCAAs and then advancing to the second round with a 4-1 defeat of No. 49 William & Mary in the opening round of the 2015 NCAA Championship at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center on Saturday.

The Big Green improved to 19-5 on the season, while the Tribe ended their season with a 16-7 mark.

“Today's match was well-played and hard-fought by the Big Green,” said head coach Bob Dallis. “Winning the doubles point gave us great momentum heading into the singles, and we had really positive body language and a lot of focus throughout the match, which is something we've been working on all year. We're very excited to move into the second round of the NCAA Championship and take on the No. 2 team in the country tomorrow.”

Senior Akiko Okuda and junior Katherine Yau kicked off the morning with an easy 8-2 win over Maria Groener and Olivia Thaler at No. 2. Dartmouth needed just one more victory to take the doubles point, but William & Mary wasn't going to make it easy, taking No. 1 by a score of 8-2.

At No. 3, freshmen Julia Schroeder and Alexxis Kiven led Julia Casselbury and Melanie Roy the entire time, ultimately winning, 8-3, to give the Green a 1-0 edge heading into singles.

Sophomore Jacqueline Crawford put the first singles point on the board with a 6-0, 6-1 defeat of Roy at No. 4, and Schroeder followed that up with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Groener at No. 5, giving Dartmouth a 3-0 lead. W&M earned its first point when Jeltje Loomans handed Yau a 6-2, 7-6(3) loss at the No. 2 position.

An incredibly close 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) victory by freshman Kristina Mathis over Thaler at No. 3 clinched the match for Dartmouth, giving the Green that ever-important fourth point to end the day with a victory.

The second round of the NCAA Championship will take place on Sunday at 11 a.m. Dartmouth will play No. 2 North Carolina, who defeated Quinnipiac, 4-0.

#1 - Loomans and Nemchinov (WM) def. Ng and Mathis (Dartmouth), 8-2
#2 - Yau and Okuda (Dartmouth) def. Groener and Thaler (WM), 8-2
#3 - Schroeder and Kiven (Dartmouth) def. Casselbury and Roy (WM), 8-3

#1 - No. 97 Ng (Dartmouth) vs. No. 53 Nemchinov (WM), 1-6, 7-5, 2-4, DNF
#2 - Loomans (WM) def. Yau (Dartmouth), 6-2, 7-6(3)
#3 - Mathis (Dartmouth) def. Thaler (WM), 7-5, 7-6 (7-4)
#4 - Crawford (Dartmouth) def. Roy (WM), 6-0, 6-1
#5 - Schroeder (Dartmouth) def. Groener (WM), 6-2, 6-1
#6 - Okuda (Dartmouth) vs. Wuenscher (WM), 7-6 (7-3), 4-3, DNF