ORLANDO, Fla. – Despite a weather delay and switching of courts, the Ursinus women's tennis team won a thrilling 5-4 match over Ohio Wesleyan on Thursday afternoon at the USTA campus.
With the win, the Bears improved to 3-2 overall on the season and won their first during their Florida spring break trip. Meanwhile, the Bishops of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) fell to 3-6 overall.
The match started with singles instead of doubles matches and first-year Allie Armour was defeated by Ale Coronel-Zegarra 6-1, 6-2. Sophomore Claire Burke bounced back for the Bears at the No. 4 singles position and bested Shanzay Ali 6-3, 6-3 before classmate Caitlin Vinsonhaler fell 7-5, 6-4 at the No. 3 spot to Ruthie Silberman. Senior Maddie Russell suffered a 6-4, 6-4 setback to Katie Lee at the No. 2 position which left the Bishops up 3-1 in the match. However, sophomore Avery Samer earned a 7-6, 7-6 win at the No. 6 position over Emma Zajac and junior Ava Compagnoni won a thrilling 6-3, 3-6, (13-11) match over Kaitlyn Quinn at No. 5 to tie the match headed into doubles.
The teams dealt with a weather delay during the opening portion of the doubles matches and switched to the clay courts at the USTA campus due to the heavy rains soaking the hard courts. After the delay, Burke and first-year Shannon Stewart earned an 8-5 win over Quinn and Zajac at the No. 3 doubles spot. Vinsonhaler and Samer suffered a tough 8-7 setback at the No. 2 position to Silberman and Ali to level the match at four and leave it to the No. 1 doubles match to decide the winner. Russell and Armour rallied back from a 5-3 deficit in their match to win five of the six games, and defeated Coronel-Zegarra and Lee 8-6 to win the contest for the Bears
The Bears will return to action on Saturday, March 19th as they will travel to face Lebanon Valley at 1:00 p.m. in non-conference action.