The No. 20 Tech women’s tennis team went on the road April 1 and 3 to face two northern ACC rivals. On Thursday, the Jackets faced a Boston College team that has only beaten Tech once in the all-time matchups between the two. Two days later the Jackets faced Maryland, looking to extend their 10-match win streak against the Terrapins.
Tech was able to win both matches, cruising while only losing one individual point.
Against Boston College, the Jackets took the match 6-1 starting with a sweep through doubles. Sophomore Irina Falconi and junior Sasha Krupina were the first to finish with the score of 8-1 over Alex Kelleher and Katharine Attwell. Next, sophomores Hillary Davis and Lynn Blau clinched the doubles point with an 8-3 win over Olga Khmylev and Jacqueline Matabah. The sweep of doubles ended with a freshman Elizabeth Kilborn and sophomore Viet Ha Ngo victory, 8-4 over Ina Kauppila and Brittany Delaney.
In singles, No. 1 ranked Falconi pushed Tech’s overall score to 2-0 when she shut out Kelleher with a 6-0, 6-0 win. Falconi’s successful performance has been noted throughout the season, as she earned her fifth ACC Player of the Week award before the match. The win against Kelleher gave her 17 wins in the dual-match season.
Tech’s lead grew to 3-0 when Blau knocked off Kauppila 6-1, 6-2. Davis clinched the Jackets win with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Delaney. After Krupina had the lone loss on the day in a three-set battle with Katarina Gajic, Kilborn and Ngo each took their matches in the third set, 5-7, 6-1, 10-2 and 6-2, 4-6, 10-6 respectively.
In the next matchup in College Park, the Jackets swept the Terrapins 7-0, winning all of the doubles and singles matches.
In doubles play the Falconi and Krupina tandem ended first with an 8-1 win on court one over Jordan Hansbrough and Lexi Brand. Ngo and Kilborn clinched the doubles point with another 8-1 victory, beating Burce Kurkan and Eleonore Paillaud. Davis and Blau were the last team to finish the doubles sweep (8-6) and solidify Tech’s 1-0 lead going into singles play.
The Jackets moved to 2-0 when Davis, who has won five of her last six matches, beat Paillaud 6-0, 6-1. Falconi extended both Tech’s lead and her own singles record (18-1) with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Maggie MacKeever. Next to secure the win on the day was Krupina, who finished her match with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Hansbrough.
Blau brought Tech’s lead to 5-0 with a win over Brand 7-5, 1-6, 10-6. The final score went to 7-0 after Kilborn and Ngo concluded their matches on the day; Kilborn took down Kurkan 6-1, 7-5 and Ngo held off Julia Huschke 7-5, 1-6, 10-6.
The Jackets will face two tough teams in No. 5 Duke and No. 1 North Carolina on April 10-11. Tech will honor its only senior, Amanda McDowell, before Sunday’s match, the 2010 home finale.