Ashley Ferguson
Contributing Writer
The College of Wooster’s men’s and women’s tennis teams broke out last weekend in competition against Walsh University and Oberlin College to kick off their regular seasons in style.
The Fighting Scots women competed in the non-scoring Oberlin College Invitational, where they turned in tidy wins in doubles play on Saturday. Leading the 6-4 record were Elizabeth Brewington ’17 and Ellie Rivera ’20. The duo danced past a pair from Ohio Northern University, safely winning 8-1. They went on to clinch a match against Baldwin Wallace 8-5. Veronica Clark ’19 and Joy Li ’20 also went 8-5 over Baldwin Wallace, following their 8-4 win against Allegheny College.
The Scots’ success continued on Sunday in round-robin singles matches, when Brewington, Clark, and Li combined to win six with zero losses. Clark bested athletes from John Carroll University, 6-0, 7-6, 7-4, and Case Western Reserve University 6-0, 6-0. Li went 6-4, 3-6, 10-4 to glide past a Blue Streak in her first match, and finished the day with a solid defeat over an athlete from Division II Slippery Rock University 6-1, 6-3.
Brewington, who went 6-1, 7-6, 7-4, and topped it all off with an 8-3 pro-set match on Sunday, says the Oberlin tournament is one of her favorites. “It’s a good chance to size up the competition and [work on] team bonding.” When asked what she sees as the team’s strengths, she said she is looking forward to a competitive and fun season with the addition of five new players who bring energy and competitiveness. “Most of our conference has relatively young teams so I think this year would be a great opportunity to really be competitive and maybe beat some of the old powerhouses in the conference,” said Brewington.
“We’re going into every match with a winning mindset,” said head coach Amy Behrman. “We’ve added several new faces to our program and I’m excited to see what the future holds for them. As for our returning players, they know what to expect and I’m confident in their leadership to help set the tone for the season,” said Behrman.
The Fighting Scots men put the pressure on but ultimately fell to Walsh at home on Sunday. Starting out on a high note, an 8-6 win from Jack Buchan ’17 and Davis Elkins ’17 tied the match at one, while Titas Bera ’18 and Jesse DeWitt ’19 matched that 8-6 win in their flight.
After clearing 2-1 in the doubles matches, all six singles courts lost in their first sets. Bera, DeWitt and Elkins pulled ahead to win second sets, and Bera and DeWitt then won their thirds in convincing fashion, leveling the match to 4-4.
The match ended in a third set tiebreak, similar to the one Wooster won 5-4 in this fixture last year. Elkins got to the deciding match and fell 9-7 to Walsh’s Felix Zimmerman.
Commenting on the tiebreak, Buchan notes he thought Elkins did everything right. “A lot of times when a tie break decides the match like that it can come down to a few lucky breaks one way or the other. This year it just happened to go the other way,” said Buchan
Head coach Zachary Hasenyager echoes those sentiments. “Despite the loss to Walsh, I was pretty encouraged with what I saw yesterday. We played well at the top two positions in doubles and controlled those matches [against] solid competition. In singles, we got off to a very slow start but were able to fight back across all the courts and made the match very competitive at the end. That kind of effort and fight will serve us well going forward,” he said.
The men will head to the Oberlin College Invitational tomorrow and Sunday, while the women will get back in action when they host their first dual match of the season against Ohio’s Notre Dame College on Sept. 25.
