Lehigh women’s tennis earns fifth seed in Patriot League Tournament

The Lehigh women’s tennis team will head to Annapolis, Maryland, for the Patriot League Tournament starting Thursday.

The tournament will be held in Maryland from April 21-24. Lehigh (9-8, 4-4 Patriot) walked away with wins against Loyola University (Maryland), Colgate University, Lafayette College and College of the Holy Cross, and lost to Navy, Bucknell University, Boston University and Army West Point in the Patriot League.

A key player to look out for is sophomore Christina Auyeung, who went 11-5 overall and 5-3 in the Patriot League. She is the team’s No. 1 singles and doubles player. As a freshman she made her mark and now, as a sophomore, has become one of the best players in the league.

Breezy Maravich, another sophomore on the team, said she hopes to win the championship and receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

“We have been training extremely hard all year for the opportunity to prove ourselves and showcase our potential,” she said. “We are pushing ourselves in the time we have left to train with intensity and focus in every practice so we can really hit our peak at the tournament.”

The team’s record left it with a No. 5 seed in the tournament. This sets it up to play Bucknell in the first round, which swept Lehigh 7-0  in the regular season.

“We are excited about the rematch and hope to come up with the upset,” coach Wouter Hendrix said. “We need to find a way to grind out these three set matches.”

Maravich and the rest of the team said they know that the weekend will not be easy, but they are all prepared for it and look forward to giving it their all.

“We are going to take this tournament one match at a time and hopefully leave Annapolis with a championship.”