The Oglethorpe women's tennis team got right back on track Wednesday afternoon, defeating Agnes Scott 7-2 in Decatur, Georgia, to bounce back from their defeat on Friday. The victory, which featured a sweep at doubles, improved the Stormy Petrels to 8-6 on the season.
The Petrels got off to an excellent start with their doubles sweep. Freshman Caroline Johnson and senior Katherine Walker took car of business at No. 1 doubles, while freshman Shannon Cruz and sophomore Halley Sickling also played very well with an 8-2 victory at No. 2. The No. 3 doubles team of senior MaryAnne Hafen and freshman Delaney Abood were involved in the closest match of the three, but prevailed 8-5 to secure the 3-0 sweep headed into singles.
The Petrels quickly pushed their advantage to 4-0 after a 6-0, 6-2 victory from Sickling at No. 5. They clinched it a few minutes later with a straight-sets victory from Cruz at No. 2, 6-4, 6-0. Walker followed with a 6-4, 6-2 win moments later to push the Petrels out to a 6-0 lead, then they extended that to 7-0 when Johnson, fresh off her SAA Player of the Week award, defeated the Scotties' No. 1 player 7-6 (2), 6-2.
The Scotties finished the match off with a pair of victories as Hafen dropped a first-set tiebreaker and eventually fell 7-6 (2), 6-2, while Abood found herself locked in a tight, 3-set match at No. 6, coming back from a set down before falling in a third-set, 10-point tiebreaker, 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (8).
"We got a great start, sweeping all three doubles matches," said Oglethorpe head coach Peter Howell. "Katherine Walker did a good job in her first match back to full competition after an injury had kept her at doubles only for a week or two. Agnes Scott beat us last year, so combine that with the fact that this was a bounce-back from the loss the other day and this was a rewarding win for our group."
The Petrels get right back to action on Thursday, when they travel to Lookout Mountain, Georgia, to take on Covenant at 4 p.m. After that, the Petrels will get back to SAA play over the weekend when they travel to Birmingham, Alabama, to take on Birmingham-Southern and to Jackson, Mississippi, to go against Millsaps.
