The 12th-ranked Case Western Reserve University women's tennis team nearly overcame a 3-0 deficit after doubles play, but ultimately fell just short in a close 5-4 loss to ninth-ranked Emory in the consolation round of the ITA Indoor National Championship in Nicholsville, Kentucky on Saturday.
The loss dropped the Spartans to 7-2 on the year while Emory improved to 2-3.
The no. 1 doubles match was the first to finish with sophomores Hannah Kassaie and Lily McCloskey falling 8-3 to Ana Cristina Perez and Emily Kantrovitz 8-3. Emory's Iris Berman and Eliza McPherron extended the Eagles' lead to 2-0 with an 8-3 win over juniors Katherine Wang and Pallavi Goculdas at no. 3 doubles. In a hard-fought match at no. 2 doubles, first-year Katalina Wang and sophomore Radha Patel fell in a tiebreaker to Alexa Goetz and Izabele Antanavicius 8-7 (7).
Emory extended its lead to 4-0 and put itself a point away from clinching the match with a 6-1, 6-1 win at no. 6 singles from Goetz over Goculdas. However, the Spartans made things interesting from that point forward, winning the next four matches to even the score at 4-4. McCloskey put the Spartans on the board with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Kantrovitz at no. 2 singles, and Kassaie followed with a 6-3, 6-1 victory against Stephanie Shulman at no. 1 singles to make the team score 4-2. Sophomore Anna Kan was the next to finish, claiming a 7-6 (5), 6-1 win against Berman at fifth singles, and a three-set win from Katalina Wang at fourth singles, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, brought the Spartans even in the team score.
The match would come down to the third singles contest between Patel and Ilayda Baykan. Patel took the opening set 6-3, but Baykan evened the score with a 6-2 win in the second set, and ultimately pulled out a 6-0 victory in the third set to clinch the match for the Eagles.
Next up for the Spartans will be the seventh-place match at the tournament against seventh-seeded and 11th-ranked Carnegie Mellon University on Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m.
