Lehigh women’s tennis team lost a close match Sunday in a Patriot League opener against Navy. The final score was 5-2.
With only seven matches left until the Patriot League Tournament, the Mountain Hawks are at an even 6-6, while Navy climbs to 15-6.
Doubles came through strong for the Mountain Hawks, who won the doubles point.
Lehigh freshman Christina Auyeung and sophomore Jamie Campisi bested Navy’s Summer Ralston and Claudia Mackenzie in an 8-6 victory in the top flight. Lehigh fell in the No. 2 flight, but freshman Kirstin Godau and Abby Duddy won a tiebreaker match 7-4 against Navy’s Mikaela Carlson and Audrey Channell, defeating them 8-7 and securing the doubles point for Lehigh.
Lehigh’s top singles flight won, but Navy swept the last five to win over the Mountain Hawks.
Auyeung got her second win of the day in the top flight of the singles, beating Navy’s Sam Droop with a 6-0, 6-2 win.
Lehigh senior Abby Farrell brought her singles match all the way to a 10-point tiebreak but fell there to Navy’s Summer Ralston with scores of 2-6, 7-5, 10-3.
Looking forward to the next game, Lehigh coach Wouter Hendrix sees this loss as more beneficial than harmful for the rest of the season.
“We played excellent doubles, executed really well,” Hendrix said. “They played really smart, and they did what they had to do: They stuck to the basics. So I was very pleased with them because the doubles are something we have been struggling with all season.”
Hendrix’s optimism is shared throughout the team.
“Singles has been going very well and doubles is something that we have been trying to work on so it was nice to see that payoff,” Campisi said “The most important thing we can do is build off of the momentum we got in doubles and make sure that we continue to win the doubles point.”
The improved doubles play wasn’t the only good thing to come out of this loss, according to Hendrix.
“I think we will actually benefit from today because it showed that we can compete with one of the top teams in the league,” the coach said. “We are going to take that from this match and build on that.”
Farrell echoed her coach, saying she was excited to see “just the pride we have with our own squad moving forward.
“We will continue to rise because we know we were this close to beating [Navy] which is definitely one of the best in our league,” Farrell continued. “The fact that we were this close…I think we can gain confidence moving forward.”
Lehigh will play Moravian College at home Wednesday before taking a break for Easter weekend. Wednesday’s match kicks off at 5:30 p.m.
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