Maddie Moran

Sports Editor

On Monday, March 3, Wooster women’s tennis hosted the Otterbein University Cardinals at Aspen Racquet Club — their home courts. The match was originally scheduled for Sunday, but was postponed until the following day. The Scots ultimately took the loss, 7-0. The team went into the match with a 2-3 record, while the Cardinals came in 0-1 after losing their first game of the season to Carnegie Mellon University.

The team played 3 doubles matches, with the first pair consisting of Janaki Jagannathan ’25 and Elyse Errington ’28, who fell to Erin Storrer and Lillia Walter, 6-0. Next, Jade Adkins ’28 and Kamila Kadirova ’28 lost to Breanna Ball and Taryn Simmers, 6-1. Sarah Mashaal ’26 and Willow Hernishin ’26 took the final doubles defeat, to Niya Bell and Aubrey McMahon, 6-0.

The first pairing in singles was another matchup between Jagannathan and Storrer, which was the Scots’ highest scoring match of the day: 6-3, 6-0. Errington and Walter faced each other again in singles, putting up a consistent performance, 6-1, 6-1. Adkins matched that score against Otterbein’s Daniela De Mata, 6-1, 6-1.

The fourth and fifth singles matchups were clean sweeps for the Cardinals, as Kadirova fell to Olivia Eckels and Mia Smith ’27 to Breanna Ball. The last matchup consisted of Hernishin and Otterbein’s Caitlin Pennington, where some improvement was shown between sets, with final scores of 6-0 and 6-1.

“Our spring break trip is a great opportunity to build upon our team and individual player development,” Amy Behrman, tennis head coach, said. “We will spend ten days on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, playing at least four matches versus other D3 programs from across the country that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to compete against.”

During the Scots’ spring training trip, they will first face off against Agnes Scott College Scotties on March 17, who currently sit at 0-1 coming off a 7-0 loss to the Columbia College Koalas in South Carolina.

Next, they’ll take on the Millikin University Big Blue and Ripon College Redhawks on back-to-back days, March 19 and 20. Millikin played their main season in the fall and finished up 1-11 overall on the season. The Redhawks are 1-3 for their spring season and went 1-12 for their fall season. The last of the 4 matches will be against the University of the Ozarks-Arkansas Eagles. The Eagles currently sit at 0-6, but they still have 6 matches to prepare before they face Wooster.

“We’re focused on improving our doubles performances and individual singles strategies,” Behrman said. “It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s also a great time for our players to connect. They will create memories and relationships that last beyond their four years at Wooster.”

Cheer on the Scots remotely on March 17 at 12 p.m. via live stats on the Wooster Athletics website for the matchup against Agnes Scott.