The No. 6 ranked women’s tennis team hosted its last two matches of the regular season against Boston College and Maryland last weekend. The Jackets have seen success against both these opponents in the past as Boston College has not beaten Tech since joining the ACC and Maryland has lost nine straight times while not winning in Atlanta since April 19, 1998.
On Saturday, the Jackets defeated Boston College 6-1 and improved their record to 14-5 overall and 7-1 in the ACC. Tech opened up the day with a sweep of all three doubles matches to take an early 1-0 lead. Freshman Irina Falconi and sophomore Sasha Krupina were the first tandem to finish as they overtook the Eagles’ Alina Sullivan and Jacqueline Mabatah by the score of 8-1. The No. 20 ranked team of senior Christy Striplin and freshman Noelle Hickey clinched the doubles point for the Jackets with an 8-3 win over Lauren Cash and Dasha Cherasov on court one, and to finish off doubles for the day, junior Amanda McDowell and freshman Lynn Blau defeated Lana Krasnopolsky and Katarina Gajic with a final score of 8-2.
No. 7 ranked Falconi, who was the previous week’s ACC women’s tennis co-player of the week for her perfect 3-0 in singles and doubles, opened up singles play with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Krasnopolsky at the top spot. Freshman Viet Ha Ngo then upped Tech’s lead to 3-0 following a victory over Brittany Delaney, 6-2, 6-2 on court six. Krupina then sealed the victory on the day for the Jackets after beating Sullivan 6-3, 6-3. Striplin then won her match 6-1, 6-4 over Katharine Attwell at the fourth spot in the lineup. No. 19 ranked McDowell gave Tech its final win on the day after defeating Gajic 6-1, 7-6 (10-8) at the second position. Hickey’s close loss to Cash, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-3), gave Boston College its only point on the day and ended the match with the final score of 6-1.
On Sunday, the Jackets swept Maryland in its final regular season home match 7-0. As the only senior on the team, Striplin was recognized in a small ceremony prior to the match for her accomplishments. Going into the match, Striplin was second all-time for singles wins at Tech with 111. She also recorded 66 career doubles wins, which places her at eighth all-time.
Due to the forecast of rain, it was agreed that the women play the singles matches before doubles. All six singles matches were able to finish outdoors before rain began to fall. Blau opened the day with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Jordan Hansbrough on court six. Wins from McDowell and Hickey pushed Tech’s lead to 3-0 before Striplin sealed the win with a straight set, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Karin Lundmark. Ngo and Krupina then finished off singles with wins which brought Tech to a score of 6-0.
The two teams then moved indoors because of rain and finished with doubles. Tech swept all three matches and easily clinched the doubles point. The doubles teams of McDowell/Blau and Falconi/ Krupina were each able to win their respective matches with a score of 8-1 that resulted in the final match score of 7-0.
The women’s tennis team will close out the regular season as it plays North Carolina today and Duke tomorrow in an effort to win the ACC regular-season title.