Emory Women’s Tennis Shuts Out Washington & Lee to Advance to NCAA Semifinals

The third-ranked Emory University women’s tennis team picked up its third-straight shutout victory of the NCAA Division III Championships with a 5-0 win over eighth-ranked Washington & Lee University, as the Eagles advanced to Wednesday’s semifinals where they will face top-ranked Amherst College.

The Eagles will head into the semifinal match with an overall record of 22-4 after today’s victory, matching the team’s win total from each of the last two seasons, the second-highest mark in the program’s history.  Washington and Lee will end its season with an overall record of 20-7.

Emory’s second doubles pairing of junior Zahra Dawson and sophomore Jordan Wylie scored the first point of the match, defeating Washington and Lee’s Jen Snyder and Ellen Yeatman 8-3.  The Eagles’s regionally sixth-ranked pairing got off to an early lead, but the 11^th-ranked Generals came back, knotting the match at three apiece.  However, Dawson and Wylie won the next five games in a row to claim the victory.

The first doubles match was a meeting between two of the region’s top-ranked doubles teams, but Emory’s fourth-ranked pairing of freshman Gabrielle Clark and senior Lorne McManigle prevailed with an 8-3 upset over third-ranked Lauren Lukas and Trelsie Sadler.  The Eagles jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the match and never looked back, leading by no less than three games the rest of the contest.

The highlight of the doubles matches came from the third-doubles contest, where freshmen Brenna Kelly and Malavika Padmanabhan claimed a 9-8 (7-4) tiebreaker victory for Emory over Washington & Lee’s Ann Morris and Catherine Reed.  The Eagles fell behind 5-1 early in the match, but rallied to take a 7-6 lead.  Morris and Reed regained the lead at 8-7, but Kelly and Padmanabhan won their eighth game to send the match into a best-of-seven pro-set tiebreaker.  The back-and-forth play between the two teams continued into the tiebreaker, where the Generals notched the first two points, but the Eagles battled back with four-straight points, taking a 4-2 lead.  The Generals again scored two-straight, knotting the match at 4-4, but Emory scored three straight to earn the victory and give Emory a 3-0 lead heading into singles play.

Clark, the region’s top-ranked singles player, delivered the fourth point of the game for Emory with a dominating 6-2, 6-0 win in the first singles match over Yeatman, ranked sixth in the Atlantic South.  The victory was capped off by regionally 12^th-ranked Dawson, who defeated Sadler 6-1, 6-1 in the fourth singles match to clinch the team win.

When play was stopped, Emory’s McManigle was leading 6-2, 3-3 over Snyder in the third singles match, while Padmanabhan held a 6-1, 4-1 lead over Sallie Griffin in fifth singles, and senior Lindsay Reidenbach won her first set 7-6 in sixth singles over Reed.  Wylie trailed Lukas by a set in second singles, after losing the first frame 6-4. 

The victory sets up a rematch of last year’s semifinal match between Emory and Amherst, a contest that the Eagles came away from with a 5-4 victory.  The Eagles are 9-2 all time against the Lord Jeffs, including a 5-1 mark during NCAA Championship play.  This will be the first meeting of the season between the two teams.

Amherst claimed a victory over fifth-ranked Tufts University in its quarterfinal match, winning 5-1.

This will be Emory’s 12^th trip to the NCAA semifinals.  The Eagles are 7-4 all time in NCAA semifinal matches.

Tomorrow’s match is slated for a 2:00 PM EDT start from the Biszantz Family Tennis Center in Claremont, CA.  The championship and third-place matches are both scheduled for 1:00 PM EDT on Thursday.