Claremont, CA- The sunshine came out for the Eph's first spring break match in California as they took on the Whitman College Blues. The Ephs are now 5-0 on the season, after their 8-1 win this morning.
A dominating start to doubles set the tone for the rest of the match. Erica Ekstrand and Yuu Ishikawa played a solid match, focusing on finding the first poach, to win 8-1 at #1 doubles. At #2 doubles, Jane Ladaga and Annabelle Siegel got off to a quick 4-1 lead. Their opponents began to up their game, but the Eph pair broke to go up 6-3 and ran away with the momentum to win 8-3. The first year pairing of Margaux Molyneux and Ahn Lin debuted at #3 doubles. After getting off to a 6-0 lead, the match got more competitive, but they stayed strong to secure an 8-4 win.
Heading into singles, the Ephs felt confident in their ability to close out the match. At #4, Mia Thomann played an extremely solid match throughout to secure the first singles win with a score of 6-0, 6-0. Following shortly after, Molyneux made smart decisions to win 6-2, 6-2 at #6. At #5, Ananya Aggarwal played an opponent, similar to herself, who made many balls. After a handful of long points, Aggarwal closed out the match 6-1, 6-3. Siegel had a tight first set at #3 singles. After making some adjustments, she stayed patient and dominated the next set to win 7-5, 6-1. Ishikawa played an unconventional opponent with tricky spin at #2. After puzzling through a close first couple games, Ishikawa found her way to the net and won 6-4, 6-0. Ekstrand fought hard at #1 singles, but despite finding her rhythm later in the second set, she fell 6-3, 7-5.
Eph head coach Anik Cepeda said, "Today was a solid start to the spring break match stretch. Execution was up and down at times, but that's to be expected in our first outdoor match. They did a good job staying positive and figured it out." The Ephs are excited to take on the CalTech beavers tomorrow at 3 PM PDT!
Results:
Doubles:
1) Ekstrand/Ishikawa vs. Blunt/Castellanos 8-1
2) Siegel/Ladaga vs. Yu/Carter 8-3
3) Lin/Molyneux vs. Jha/Wells 8-4
Singles:
1) Ekstrand vs. Blunt 3-6, 5-7
2) Ishikawa vs. Yu 6-4, 6-0
3) Siegel vs. Jha 7-5, 6-1
4) Thomann vs. Castellanos Calderon 6-0, 6-0
5) Aggarwal vs. Wells 6-1, 6-3
6) Molyneux vs. Longpre 6-2, 6-2
