The Whitworth women’s tennis team fought through a grueling schedule last weekend, beating University of Puget Sound 6-3, Pacific University 7-2 and losing to Linfield 5-4. Whitworth traveled to each school over the course of three days. The women played up to five hours of tennis matches each day and traveled close to 900 miles altogether.
Whitworth met UPS first on Friday, Feb. 22. The Bucs won two out of three doubles games and four of six singles games, defeating UPS with a score of 6-3.
Assistant coach Rachel Aldridge was pleased with how the women played.
“UPS’s team played tough all the way down,” Aldridge said. “They put up a really good match for us, but we just played strong all the way through and ended up with a win.”
Freshman Taylor Pena, who played No. 1 doubles and No. 3 singles, had a successful match. She and her partner, sophomore Saryn Mooney won 8-6. In singles, Pena swept her opponent Marissa Friedman in two sets, winning 6-2 and 6-4.
“We played a very patient game and waited for opportunities to hit aggressively,” Pena said. “Everyone just did a phenomenal job.”
Whitworth traveled to Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore. on Saturday, Feb. 23. Whitworth won the match 7-2, losing one singles game and one doubles game.
“Pacific put up a really tough match,” Aldridge said. “It was pretty close up until the end.”
Sophomore Caylee Lamm, who played No. 5 singles against Pacific’s Amber Craviotto, took the win in two sets scoring 6-2 and 6-1.
“My match was a good match,” Lamm said. “I was just steady and consistent so I sort of wore down my opponent.”
The team finished out the weekend by traveling to Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore. on Sunday, Feb. 24. The match was close but ended in defeat for Whitworth with a final score of 5-4.
Sophomore Saryn Mooney played No. 1 singles against Linfield, defeating her opponents in both singles and doubles. Mooney, who had to retire from her game on Saturday due to a sprained ankle, pushed through her injury to secure the wins. In singles, Mooney won the first set in a tiebreaker 7-5, lost the second 3-6, and finally was victorious after a third-set tiebreaker of 7-3.
“Even though my ankle was bothering me, I was just going to go out and give it one hundred percent and just see what happened,” Mooney said. “I was relaxed.”
Mooney and her doubles partner, Taylor Pena, came back from a four-point deficit to secure the win. The score was 2-6 when Mooney and Pena took over the game and won in a tiebreaker 12-10.
“[Pena] and I kept each other up and positive,” Mooney said. “We both did a good job of encouraging each other and staying mentally tough.”
Whitworth will spend the week recovering from the busy weekend and preparing to meet Whitman University for a match at 10 a.m., Saturday March 2, at the Whitworth Tennis Center.
Contact Miranda Cloyd at [email protected]
