On Wednesday the McClure tennis center was alive with men’s and women’s tennis action as the Loyola Greyhounds took on Mount Saint Mary’s in a non-conference match. Women’s tennis won five out of six singles matches to attain the victory. At the same time, the men would fall to the Mount men’s team, losing five out of six hard fought singles matches.
The Loyola Women started off down when Mount took the doubles point by winning two out of three doubles matches. Kateri Martin ‘21 and Abby Thornton ’21 fought at No. 1 Doubles, only to lose by a few games to Alexa Quintanilla and Hannah Davis, 7-5. Alexandria Agee ‘20 and Lin Robertson ‘20 picked up a match for the Greyhounds at No. 2 Doubles, defeating Emma Blake and Meg Smith, 6-2. Abby Decker ’22 and Sandra Aguirre ’22 at No. 3 Doubles fell to Taylor Cook and Mia Pittman 6-1.
As the Greyhounds moved into singles matches, they brought intense concentration and focus to come out on top.
Martin would start off with the early win at No. 1 singles. Martin was up 3-0 in the first set when her opponent Quintanilla retired due to injury. Thornton knocked off Smith at No. 2 singles 6-2, 7-5. Robertson defeated Cook at No. 4 singles after winning the first set 6-3 and Cook retired due to illness in the second. Aguirre won 6-2, 6-2 over Pittman at No.5 singles, and Agee beat Blake 7-5, 6-3 at No. 6 Singles. Mount Saint Mary’s won a singles match at the No. 3 slot, after Decker battled through long rallies and came just short against Davis 4-6, 6-3 (14-12).
Reflecting on the match, Decker said, “I admire the attitude of our team so much because no matter who is on the other side of the net, we play with the same fighting spirit, as shown against Mount Saint Mary’s and as we will continue to show in our three matches this weekend.”
The men would reflect some of the same scores but with a reverse outcome. The men lost the critical doubles point and were therefore down 1-0 early in the match, similar to the women. Skyler Gates ‘22 and Matt Fitzmaurice ‘20 fell to Jackson Wood and Parth Sharma at No. 1 doubles 6-0. Gabe Santos and Alonzo Garcia won over Kyle Gower ‘20 and Brian Hoffarth ’19 at No. 3 doubles 7-5. The Greyhounds picked up at doubles match at No. 2, when Benny Glezer ‘22 and C.J. Cash ‘19 defeated Jean Armstrong and Evan Hine of the Mountaineers.
As the men moved into singles, the greyhounds would be victorious at the No. 5 and No. 6 slots. Cash beat Hine 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the No. 5 spot, while Edik Pribitkin ’22 won 6-1, 6-2 in the No. 6 spot.
At No. 1 singles, Wood beat Hoffarth in another close second set 6-2, 7-6 (4). Sharma knocked off Gates at No. 2 singles 6-2, 6-4. Glezer lost to Garcia at No. 3 singles 5-7, 3-6. Armstrong would fight it out with Gower in a three-set battle but eventually win the point 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Feature Image Courtesy of Loyola Athletics
