MURFREESBORO, TN – The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Tennis team fell in their pursuit of back to back ITA Indoor National Championships to Emory University 5-4 on Sunday afternoon at the Adams Tennis Complex.
Pomona-Pitzer lost the Championship as the competition all came down to the No. 3 singles match between Mae Coyiuto and No. 22 Daniela Lopez. Coyiuto came out playing excellent as she battled in the first set and came out on top with a 7-5 win. Lopez then regrouped and battled back to take the second set 6-3 and then went on to clinch the National Championship for Emory as she defeated Coyiuto 6-0 in the final set.
The Sagehens began the afternoon down 2-1 after the doubles competition as Maryann Zhao and Emily Chen lost in the No. 1 doubles spot 8-3 and the team of Grace Hruska and Yurie Heard fell at No. 3, 8-4. The sole win in doubles competition for Pomona-Pitzer came at the No. 2 spot as Caroline Casper and Arianna Chen defeated their opponents 8-4 to salvage a point and headed into singles down 2-1.
The Sagehens got an early win in singles play as Zhao quickly took care of No. 12 Michelle Satterfield in the No. 2 singles 6-1 and 6-2 to bring the score to 2-2.
Emory took the next singles match in the No. 5 position as Melissa Goodman defeated Hruska 6-2, 6-3 to push the score to 3-2.
The No. 1 singles match ended as two top-ten ranked singles players went at it in No. 6 Casper for Pomona-Pitzer versus No. 1 ranked singles player Bridget Harding for Emory.
Harding started out strong as she took the first set 6-1 but Casper came back and battled from behind to take the second set 7-6 and went on to finish off the come-from-behind victory as Casper won the third set 6-2 and knocked off the No. 1 ranked singles player in Division III.
Arianna Chen won her first set in the No. 4 singles match against No. 27 Katarina Su 6-3 but the Emory player battled back to take the second set 6-2 and finished off Chen in the third by the score of 6-2 as well.
With the Sagehens needing a win, Emily Chen provided Pomona-Pitzer with some hard-fought tennis as she defeated her singles opponent, Michelle DeMeo, 7-6 in set one and also 7-6 in set two as the National Championship fell on the shoulders of the No. 3 singles match between Mae Coyiuto and No. 22 Daniela Lopez.
Up Next: The Sagehens will return home as they will host Carnegie Mellon on Saturday, March 11th at 3:00 p.m.
