Emory University, seeded fourth in the NCAA Division III
Women’s Tennis Championships, opened its tournament with a
5-0 win over Methodist University, advancing to play in the
regional finals on Sunday at 12:00 PM.
The Eagles took control of the match during doubles play, winning
all three matches to take a 3-0 lead over the Monarchs.
Finishing first was Emory’s third doubles team of
Lindsay Reidenbach and Jordan
Wylie, who picked up a perfect 8-0 win over
Methodist’s Heather Brayton and Jennifer Hamel. The
Eagles’ second doubles pairing of Tshema
Nash and Sabra Rogers, ranked
13th in the Atlantic South Region, was the second group
to finish, winning 8-1 over the Monarchs’ Rachel Purser and
Dana Powell. Emory’s first pairing of Zahra
Dawson and Lorne McManigle, ranked third
in the region, rounded out the doubles-sweep with another 8-1
victory, over regionally 14th-ranked Kaitlin Flaherty
and Katherine Meindl.
In singles play, Nash was the first to finish for the Eagles,
defeating Methodist’s Brayton 6-1, 6-1 in the fourth singles
match. Reidenbach clinched the match for Emory with a perfect
6-0, 6-0 win in the fifth singles match over Dana Powell. The
other four singles matches were left unfinished.
Emory’s singles players combined to lose just seven games
during the match, which lasted just an hour and 35 minutes.
With the win, Emory improved to 19-5 during the season, while
Methodist concluded its year with a 23-3 record.
Emory will play the winner of today’s match between
17th-ranked Vassar College and sixth-ranked Washington
and Lee University in the third round of the tournament at 12:00 PM
on Sunday at the Woodruff Physical Education Center.