On March 13, the Loyola University Maryland Men and Women’s Tennis teams faced off against the Morgan State Bears at the McClure Tennis Center in the third match of the spring season. The women rallied with singles and doubles wins to defeat the Bear’s Women’s team 4-3. The men took No.1 doubles but were topped by the Bear’s Men’s team in the other matches 7-0.
The focus and intensity were palpable as Loyola stormed the courts, marked by spirited cheering as the matches begun at 3 p.m. The women started match play by capitalizing on the advantage of Abby Decker ’22 and Sandra Aguirre ’22, automatically winning at No. 3 doubles for the Greyhounds due to a default by Morgan State.
Alexandria Agee ’20 and Lin Robertson ’20 fought in the No. 2 doubles match and won 6-3 over opponents Averiana Mitchell and Jourdan Wallace, clinching the critical doubles point for the Greyhounds early in the match. Kateri Martin ’21 and Abigail Thornton ‘21 rallied from behind to challenge Peggy Rooke and Asmara Rose at No.1 doubles but would eventually fall 6-4 after grinding through multiple breakpoints and extended rallies.
Martin would come out on top at No. 1 singles, taking Peggy Rooke to three sets 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 while Asmara Rose from Morgan State would take No. 2 singles against Abigail Thornton, fighting from behind to win in another three-set battle of 2-6, 6-4,7-6(5). Abby Decker and Lin Robertson continued the three-set match streak at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, but Decker would fall to Mitchell 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and Robertson would fall to Wallace 0-6, 6-3, 6-4. Alexandria Agee won her match by default at No. 6 singles, and Sandra Aguirre clinched the winning singles point for the Greyhounds at No. 5 singles, Morgan State’s Dana Santiago down 6-2, 5-2 before she withdrew due to injury.
In reflection on the tenacity of the girls to display perseverance through multiple three-set matches, Kateri Martin ’21 said she “loved the effort today through the third sets even if some of the matches didn’t go our way because if we keep fighting like that then we should all be confident they will start to!”
For the men’s doubles, Matt Fitzmaurice ’20 and Skylar Gates ’22 won at No. 1 doubles 6-0 over opponents Shrey Gupta and Sebastian Lopez. Even though the men started off strong with a quick win, that would be the only match they took from the Bears in both singles and doubles.
Arjun Ravakrishnan and Sergei Kharchev won 6-3 over Benny Glezer ‘22 and CJ Cash ‘19 at No. 2 doubles, and Oguzhan Ceylan and Nithit Rawal took No. 3 doubles 6-2 over Brian Hoffarth ‘19 and Kyle Gower ’20.
The men would move on to fight for each point in singles, but Kharchev was a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Brian Hoffarth at No. 1, Ravakrishnan topped Skylar Gates 6-4, 7-5 at No. 2, Rawal beat Glezer 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3 singles, Ceylan defeated Gower 6-3, 6-2 at No. 4, Lopez won against Fitzmaurice 6-2, 6-3 at No. 5, and Gupta won 6-3, 6-2 over CJ Cash at No. 6.
This victory for the women gives the team a winning streak of 30 to start the spring season with a strong foot forward. The men currently hold a record of 1-2.
Catch the Greyhounds in action again Saturday March 16 as they face Lehigh in their first patriot league match of the season, and Sunday March 17 against Chestnut Hill.
Featured Image: Borden Media
