Photo gallery by Shawn Jiang
Photo Gallery by Julie Mall
HILTON HEAD, S.C. – The No. 21 Carleton College women’s tennis team lost to a Division III opponent for the first time this season, falling 9-0 to No. 6 University of Chicago. The match was closer than the team score indicates as three of the matches required tiebreakers. Bridget Doyle (Jr./Mendota Heights, Minn./Visitation) and Anne Lombardi (So./Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central) came closest to registering wins for the Knights, each sending their singles matches to a third set.
The Maroons’ roster features a trio of regionally-ranked singles players, including top-ranked Kendra Higgins, who bested third-ranked Kathryn Schmidt (Sr./Hopkins, Minn./Hopkins) by a 6-3, 6-2 score atop the lineup.
Doyle faced No. 4 Jennifer Kung in another contest between ranked players. Doyle won the opener 6-4, but Kung event things up by a 6-2 margin. The third set super tiebreaker was a tight affair, eventually going to Kung, 12-10.
After dropping the first set at third singles, 6-2, Lombardi equaled No. 12 Carmen Vaca Guzman by the same score. The super tiebreaker once again went Chicago’s way, this time by a 10-7 margin.
Erin Gudul (Sr./North Oaks, Minn./Mounds View) lost at fourth singles 6-1, 7-6 afer she came up short in the second-set tiebreaker, 7-4.
In doubles, Higgins and Vaca Guzman combine to form the region’s top-ranked tandem and proved worthy of that distinction after an 8-1 triumph over Carleton’s No. 10 pairing of Schimdt and Doyle.
Lombardi and Molly Hemes (So./Green Bay, Wis./Preble) dropped an 8-4 decision at second doubles to No. 13 Kung and Linden Li.
Carleton will face Erskine College on Thursday, March 22.
