The Case Western Reserve University women's tennis team, ranked 29th in Division III, opened up their 2020 spring season with a 6-3 win against 28th-ranked Hope College at the Dewitt Tennis Center in Holland, Michigan on Friday afternoon.
The Spartans improved to 2-1 on the campaign with the win, while the Flying Dutch dropped to 1-2 on the season.
Hope grabbed the early lead in the match, with Leah Newhof and Sydney Jackson picking up an 8-3 win over sophomore Sneha Karnam and first-year Savannah Bright at second doubles, followed by an 8-3 victory at first doubles for Amanda Bandrowski and Claire Hallock over juniors Madeleine Paolucci and Nicole Cardwell. At third doubles, sophomore Nidhi Jha and first-year Nina Hoog were able to pick up a key point for the Spartans, winning 8-1 over Bailey Chorney and Delanie Riebschleger to make it a 2-1 score heading into singles play.
Cardwell defeated Chorney 6-1, 6-0 at fifth singles to even the score at 2-2. After a loss at second singles, first-year Shreya Ramani came back to win the third singles match (7-5, 6-2) over Newhof. Paolucci bested Hallock at first singles 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to give CWRU a 4-3 lead. The Spartans secured the match victory in the fourth singles match as junior Mira Amin bested Jackson 5-7, 6-0, 7-6 (7-1) and Jha claimed a 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) win over Pniewski at sixth singles.
Case Western Reserve will continue action this weekend as they face the eighth-ranked University of Chicago at the Dewitt Tennis Center for a 3:00 p.m. meeting on Saturday, February 15th.
