LAKEVILLE, Mass. -Â Hosting the first round of the Little East Conference Tournament for the first time since 2018, the No. 4 seeded University of Massachusetts Dartmouth women's tennis team handled business against No. 5 Plymouth State, 5-3, Tuesday afternoon at the Lakeville Tennis Club.
"It was a real battle," said Hed Coach
Doug Chapman. "Credit to Plymouth State for taking it to us after we had comfortably beaten them in New Hampshire a month ago. Credit to our players for their character and resiliency."
UMass Dartmouth fell behind after after doubles play. Senior
McKenzie Ferrari and junior
Caroline Lemieux kept the Corsairs within striking distance with an 8-3 victory.
"At one point, it appeared that we might sweep the doubles and have a quick afternoon," continued Chapman. "But Plymouth won two tie-breakers, and we found ourselves down 1-2 rather than ahead 3-0."
With their work cut out for them, junior
IsaBella Winter tied the match at 2-2 with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Tesse LaBarre put the Panthers back on top, 3-2. But O'Connell, freshman Bailey Clark and junior
Ailey Riddick all won their singles to clinch the match, with O'Connell and Riddick needing three sets. Freshman
Zuri Walters was locked in a three-set battle of her own when the match was decided.
The Corsairs improve to 12-5 on the season, which is tied with the 2010 team for the second most wins in program history. Winter now has 15 singles wins, O'Connell has 14 and Clarke has 12.
UMass Dartmouth is at top-seeded UMass Boston for the semifinal round on Thursday at 2 p.m. at BC High School.
