The Emory University women's tennis team saw its NCAA postseason run come to an end Monday afternoon, falling to Wesleyan University, 5-4, at the Dwight Davis Memorial Tennis Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Eagles battled for over four hours in the national quarterfinals with the match ultimately coming down the final match on court four. With the loss, Emory sees its season end at 16-5 overall while the Cardinals improve to 21-0 and advance to Tuesday's semifinals where they'll meet Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
Wesleyan opened the afternoon by claiming two of the three doubles matches. On court two, junior Eliza McPherron and sophomore Iris Berman dropped an 8-3 decision to see the Cardinals win the first point of the match. Fifteen minutes later, the Eagles' top pairing of sophomore Emily Kantrovitz and senior Ana Cristina Perez evened the match at 1-1, winning the final three points to secure an 8-6 decision.
Despite the match being tied at 1-1, Wesleyan would seize the lead again moments later, taking the final doubles point on court three as sophomore Izzy Antanavicius and freshman Yanire Marte fell by a score of 8-5.
In singles, it was a back-and-forth affair with the match coming down to wire. The teams would trade match wins throughout with the contest being decided at the fourth position.
Perez was quick to finish as she breezed to a 6-2, 6-0 decision on court two to bring the match level again at 2-2. But the Cardinals answered back with Berman dropping her match on court five 6-3, 6-1. Marte notched another win for the Eagles, bringing the score to 3-3 with her straight set win at No. 6, 6-3, 6-4.
With the score even, the final three courts went to three sets to decide winners.
Senior Ilayda Baykan forced three sets on court three but came away on the opposite side of a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 score. Kantrovitz provided a spark for the Eagles on the top court as she kept Emory from elimination with her comeback victory 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.
With both teams needing one win for advancement, all attention turned to court four where Antanavicius was facing Wesleyan's Jacqueline Soloveychik. Antanavicius dropped set one 5-7 before rallying 6-3 in the second. In the third, Soloveychik jumped out to a 2-0 lead and held on for the 6-4 win to give Wesleyan the clincher.
With the team portion of the NCAA Championships concluded, three Eagles will now focus on the individual championships. Kantrovitz, Perez and Baykan are all set to appear in the singles draw beginning on Saturday, May 25.
