Feb. 28, 2009
Friday the Southwestern University men's and women's tennis team narrowly defeated Hendrix College 5-4, 5-4.
The Pirate men battled hard and won two of the three match deciding sets to take the victory. Southwestern University fell in the first (Gardner defeated senior Nick Parker 6-2, 6-1), fifth (Kearney def. sophomore Casey Guinn 6-1, 6-4) and sixth flight (Yang def. first-year Griffin Ferry 7-6, 2-6, 10-8), but won the middle flights in thrilling fashion.
The fourth flight paired junior Charles Prince against Harpst. Prince started off well, easily taking the first set 6-3 but then fell 2-6 in the second set. Prince rebounded and took the third and final set 6-4 to capture the win.
SU's Esquivel easily handled Hendrix's Thomas in the third flight, winning 6-3, 6-2 to set things up for first-year Alex Lam's deciding second flight match. Lam narrowly fell in the first set 6-7 and then rallied in the following sets winning 6-2, 6-4. Lam's win secured the victory for the Pirate team.
In doubles action, Southwestern won the first two flights with Lam/Prince def. Gardner/Strickland 8-5 and Esquivel/Parker def. Thomas/Kearney 8-2. Ferry/Guinn fell to Dunson/Harpst 8-6 in the final doubles match-up.
For the women, a rally by Huskey/Fitzsimmons in #2 doubles served as a turning point the Pirates built off of for the rest of the match. Huskey/Fitzsimmons fell behind 5-1 and fought back to take the win 9-8.
SU's Satyavada/Gaines easily handled their #3 doubles match-up against Cape/Schuler 8-2 while Pennington/Finn fell in #1 doubles to Mesnil/Biggs 8-2.
The Pirate women fell in the first three flights (Mesnil def. sophomore Kelly Finn 6-0, 6-1; Biggs def. junior Mary Pennington 6-4, 2-6, 6-0; Stevens def. first-year Jessica Gaines 6-3, 6-0), but won the last three flights to capture the win for Southwestern. Sophomore Lali Satyavada def. Vo 6-1, 6-2 in the sixth flight, sophomore Sara Fitzsimmons def. Cape 6-3, 6-4 in the fourth flight and Charlotte Huskey defeated French 6-2, 6-1. Fitzsimmons' match clinched the win for the women's team.
Southwestern will continue action in Conway, AR on Saturday, taking on Rhodes College beginning at 10:30 a.m.
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