The Oglethorpe women's tennis team got their spring break trip off to an action-packed start Sunday at the Fort Gatlin Recreation Complex in Orlando, Florida, falling to Cornell College 5-4 in their first match of the day and dropping their afternoon match to Coe, ranked 13th in the Central region, 6-3. The losses drop the Stormy Petrels to 3-3 on the season.
Against Cornell College, the Petrels got off to a rocky start with losses in all three doubles matches. Sophomore Caroline Johnson and senior Katherine Walker came the closest to knocking off their rivals from Cornell at No. 1, falling 8-6.
Johnson came back in singles though and took out the Rams' No. 1 player in an exciting match, winning the first set in a tiebreak before pulling away in the second. The Petrel sophomore eventually won 7-6 (3), 6-3.
Unfortunately, Cornell had already clinched the match before that happened, getting victories at Nos. 2 and 4 singles to secure the victory up 5-1. Sophomore Halley Sickling did keep the Petrels alive briefly with a comprehensive 6-0, 6-1 victory at No. 6 before the Ram victory at No. 2 secured the dual match.
After that, though the Petrels got a few more singles victories. In addition to Johnson's win at No. 1, Walker took down the No. 3 match in short order, winning 6-4, 6-2. Senior MaryAnne Hafen also played exceptionally well, winning 7-6 (5), 6-0 at No. 5.
In the final dual match of the day, the Petrels went up against the regionally-ranked Coe Kohawks and competed well with them in a lot of matches. They took the No. 1 doubles match 9-7 as Johnson and Walker did an excellent job against Coe's top duo, which featured a regionally-ranked individual.
That came after the singles competition, though, which featured a couple of victories for the Petrels. Walker took down the No. 3 singles match with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over her opponent, while Hafen won her second match of the day, taking the No. 5 match 6-3, 6-7 (4), 1-0 (6), winning the third set in a 10-point super tiebreak.
The Petrels were close in a couple other matches, but lost in tiebreaks. Junior Ingrid Wilcox went into a third-set super tiebreak at No. 4, but fell 10-6 to drop the match. The final score of her match was 2-6, 6-1, 1-0 (6). Sickling was also very close to pushing her match to a third set, as well, falling 6-4, 7-6 (3).
"Even though the dual match was closer in the morning session, I thought we actually played a much better match in the afternoon," said Oglethorpe head coach Peter Howell. "We were closer in more of the individual matches and had a couple that we lost with tiebreaks that could've gone either way. I'm proud of the way MaryAnne and Katherine played all day, and the No. 1 doubles team of Katherine and Caroline played very well in beating Coe's powerful No. 1 team."
The Petrels will continue their stay in Orlando on Monday, as they'll move to the Lake Cane Tennis Center to take on Lake Forest at noon. They'll then wind up their spring break when they take on St. Mary's (Indiana) in nearby Kissimmee, Florida, on Tuesday.
