The 18th-ranked Case Western Reserve University women's tennis team defeated the 37th-ranked University of Rochester 8-1 at the University Athletic Association Championships on Friday to advance to the fifth-place match at the conference championships in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
The Spartans will take on 19th-ranked Brandeis University in the fifth-place match on Saturday at 9:00 a.m., after the Judges topped 31st-ranked New York University in their consolation match meeting on Friday. Brandeis is 15-4 overall this season.
Case Western Reserve swept the three doubles matches on Friday, as junior Peyton Young and freshman Kendal Holladay topped Alex Wolkoff and Abbey Reinhart 8-2 at second doubles, junior Nina Cepeda and freshman Katrin Gurvich bested Sravya Gudipudi and Bianca Dyer 8-2 at third doubles. Rounding the doubles victories, the No.1 duo of junior Nithya Kanagasegar and sophomore Jessica Liu earned an 8-2 win over Camila Garcia and Lauren Zickar.
In singles play, four of the five Spartan victories were in straight sets. Kanagasegar topped Garcia 7-5, 6-0 in the first match, and Liu earned a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Wolkoff at third singles. In the fourth singles match, Cepeda bested Zickar 6-1, 6-2, and Young picked up a 6-1, 6-1 win over Reinhart at fifth singles. Rounding out the win, senior Kennedy Mulholland battled to a 6-1, 3-6, 10-7 win over Darby McCall at sixth singles.
CWRU's lone loss came at second singles, where Gudipudi bested Holladay 6-1, 6-4.
The Spartans improved 16-5 overall with the win, while Rochester dropped to 13-6 with the loss.
Fans can follow the action will live stats at http://www.enrollment.cmu.edu/athletics/wsoccer/xlive.htm. Results and a recap of the match will be posted to athletics.case.edu following the completion of play.
