If you are faint of heart, you should have stayed away from the past two Boston University women’s tennis meets.
After coming from behind last weekend to defeat Dartmouth College, 4-3, the Terriers repeated their nail-biting performance on Saturday in their 4-3 win against Syracuse University.
The meet started off with doubles play where the Terriers found themselves on the losing end in two of three matches. Junior Christina Causway and senior Carrie Rose were defeated, 8-4, at the first doubles position. The third doubles combination of sophomore Alana Marcu and senior Hsiao Ning Ham also came away with an 8-5 loss. The lone doubles win for the Terriers came courtesy of the rackets of freshman pair Lindsey Dynof and Elena deMendoza at second doubles by a score of 8-6.
Since Syracuse received one point for this, BU knew it had to step up and win in four of its six singles matches in order to attain victory at the meet.
Causway played at the first singles position, but was unable to pull out a win for the team. But even though she was upset about her 6-2, 6-1 defeat, she left her feelings on the court and cheered on her teammates.
“We all have to come together and forget about our individual defeats quick,” Causway said.
Her cheering seemed to help as Rose won 6-4, 6-3, at second singles, followed by another victory by a score of 7-5, 6-1, at third singles courtesy of Dynof.
At fourth singles, deMendoza faced a tough opponent and was unable to contribute to the win column for the Terriers as she lost 6-4, 6-1. Luckily, freshman Hannah Bartell, who was playing at sixth singles, defeated her Syracuse foe 6-1, 6-4, to give the Terriers a 3-3 tie.
This left the match down to the fifth singles spot where Marcu was playing. After an intense three set match closely watched by both teams, Marcu made just the right shots to defeat her opponent 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, and secured the victory for the Terriers.
BU coach Lesley Sheehan seemed tremendously pleased with the Terriers performance.
“They were playing very strong mentally, and that’s what we’re working on,” she said.
The team hopes to continue its winning ways on Tuesday when it hosts Boston College. Although it is a home meet the two teams will be playing at Harvard since, like many other BU facilities this spring, the tennis courts are not ready for usage.
Boston College should be a tough opponent as it just recently made the national rankings for women’s tennis teams. But the Terriers don’t seem to be worried.
“We are always excited to play them,” Rose said. “We always have close matches.”
Sheehan also stated the importance of a strong showing by the Terriers when they face the nationally ranked Eagles.
“I know it’s going to be a good competitive match between both schools, and it would be a huge win if we could knock them off,” Sheehan said.
And the Terriers couldn’t be meeting the Eagles at a better time, as they have renewed confidence in their abilities.
“It is the prime time to peak,” Causway said. “We are peeking at the end of the season, and we feel very good.”
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