MILTON, Mass. -Â The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth women's tennis team fought hard and came away with an impressive, 5-4, victory Saturday afternoon at Curry. The Corsairs improve to 2-0, while the Colonels start the season with an 0-1 record.
UMass Dartmouth jumped out to an early 2-1 lead in doubles after the teams of juniors IsaBella Winter and Ailey Riddick, and senior Alanna O'Connell and freshman Zuri Walters snagged wins.
Curry won three of the first four singles matches to take a 4-3 lead.
The Corsairs then rallied from behind. Walters came back to win second singles (4-6, 6-4, 6-4) to tie the match at 4-4. All eyes then turned to court one, where junior IsaBella Winter and Colonel junior Sasha Borkov were going toe-to-toe. Borkov took set one 6-4, but Winter rallied in set two, breaking serve with Borkov for the match and eventually forcing a third set by a margin of 7-5. Winter jumped out quickly to a 5-0 lead in set three, but Borkov came all the way back to make it 5-4, before Winter finally closed the door to lift the Corsairs over the top.
Head Coach Doug Chapman on the match: "It was a very see-saw match. Alanna and Zuri came from behind to get second doubles to a tie-breaker, which they won 7-5 to give us a 2-1 advantage going into singles. That proved to be a very crucial point. Alanna put us ahead 3-1 with a 6-0, 6-0 win. Then Curry battled back to go ahead, 4-3. Winter and Walters both lost their first sets, and we were in a big hole. But both continued to battle, and got their matches to third sets. Zuri worked very hard to tie the match at 4-4."
"I thought Curry's Sasha Borkov was as talented as any player we faced last year. IsaBella got out to a 5-0 lead in the third set. Sasha fought back to 4-5, but IsaBella was not to be denied. A very high-quality match between to excellent No. 1's. Five of the six singles matches were very competitive. I was most impressed with our character when it was all on the line. Sophomore
Claire Yang trailed 1-6, 1-5 in her match, but she never gave up and got it to a third set."
UMass Dartmouth hosts Salve Regina on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
