Emory’s women’s tennis team came into their games on Friday and Saturday with a 36 set win streak. The team has not lost a single set since March 9, but that streak failed to make it out of the weekend.
The team hosted the Fab 5 Tournament over the weekend, facing off against three formidable opponents: No. 15 DePauw University (Ind.), No. 24 Trinity University (Texas) and No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.).
In singles against DePauw, junior Michelle Satterfield won in her number one, top-ranked singles court matchup 6-3, 6-0, senior Beatrice Rose dominated in number two singles 6-2, 6-0, junior Katarina Su cruised to victory 6-0, 6-1 in the number three spot, sophomore Anna Fuhr won the number four singles 6-0, 6-1, junior Paula Castro also cruised to a number five singles victory 6-0, 6-2 and lastly, junior Melissa Goodman won in her singles matchup 6-3, 6-0.
In doubles against DePauw, Fuhr and freshman Daniela Lopez narrowly won their number one doubles court 8-5. Su and sophomore Bridget Harding swept the second doubles spot 8-0 while Satterfield and Castro won their court 8-3 in the final match.
In singles against Trinity, Harding took her number one singles court with ease 6-1, 6-2, while freshman Taylor Cosme performed similarly, winning her number two singles court 6-2, 6-2. Senior Madison Gordon lost her first two set points, but rallied back to win the next 12 points to win 6-2, 6-0 in the third singles court. Lopez won in a hard-fought 6-4, 6-2 victory on the fourth court, while freshman Daniella Moreno-Kaste won the number five singles matchup 6-1, 6-1 in her only matchup of the day. In the last singles match of the day, senior Stephanie Loutsenko came back to win her singles matchup 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 10-7, heartbreakingly losing her first set tiebreaker and snapping the team’s undefeated set streak.
On playing only one match all weekend, Moreno-Kaste said, “It felt fine. We still train every day, and we practice a lot, so I felt like I was ready to play.”
In doubles against Trinity, Fuhr and Lopez fought hard to win 8-6 in the number one doubles court. The teams of Harding and Su and Satterfield and Castro both won the second and third doubles matchups 8-2.
On Saturday, the No. 4 Eagles faced off against No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, the athletic team for Claremont McKenna College (Calif.), Harvey Mudd College (Calif.) and Scripps College (Calif.).
Rosen and Harding won both of their singles matches, with Rosen winning 6-2, 6-2 and Harding winning 6-0, 6-4. Those were the only singles matches that were counted by record, as Satterfield and Cosme’s matches were halted with them in the lead.
In doubles on Saturday, Fuhr and Lopez swept their competition in the number one doubles court 8-0. The teams of Su and Harding and Satterfield and Castro won both of their matches 8-2.
“I think [our recent play] is just a great indicator of how strong our team is this year and how confident we feel going into the end of our season, going into our conference tournament,” Moreno-Kaste said. “I think as a team right now, we feel really good where we’re at.”
The Eagles are now 16-2 on the year. Rosen moved into a tie for 11th in Emory’s all-time singles victories with her 73rd victory on Saturday, while Gordon too moved into 15th in Emory’s all-time singles victories with her 70th win on Friday.
The Eagles will return to action Wednesday, March 30, when they host No. 1 Williams College (Mass.).
