During day one at the Boss Tennis Center, Mary Beth Winingham '10 set the tone for the Big Green by winning both of her qualifying matches. She dominated the beginning of her first match by winning the first four games. Despite letting her opponent back into the first set, Winingham, who said that she "got it together and regained focus," held on for a 6-3, 6-3 win.
Winingham continued to play tough in her second match to beat out Boston University's Cori Lefkowith 7-6, 6-2. Fellow freshman Jesse Adler '10 lost a difficult match to Columbia's Sydney Murray 7-5, 6-2, while Carley Markovitz '10 was edged out by the tournament's No. 5 seed, Larissa Santos of Old Dominion, 7-5, 1-6, 6-1. Co-captain Kerry Snow '07 also fell to a tough opponent from Cornell 6-3, 6-2.
The Big Green women showed off spirited doubles play to hometown fans during the second day of the ITA. The sister duo of Mary Beth and Lindsay Winingham '07 dominated their first round match against an outmatched Columbia team 8-1.
Unfortunately, the fifth-seeded University of Richmond team ousted the sisters in the second round by a score of 8-3.
The second Big Green doubles team of Snow/Adler lost a tight 8-5 match in the first round to a team from SUNY Buffalo. Mary Beth Winingham also outlasted the No. 1 player from Old Dominion in her first draw round match 7-5, 7-5.
Unfortunately, highly seeded opponents stopped both Winingham sisters on the third day of play during the round of 64. Mary Beth lost a tight match to the No. 12 seed in the tournament 7-5, 7-5, while older sister Lindsay was shut out 6-0, 6-0 in what head coach Robert Dallis called a "flawless performance" by her opponent, the No. 4 seed, Marianne Baker from Maryland.
The Dartmouth men's tennis team also started out strong. Seeded ninth in the tournament, the doubles team of David Waslen '07 and Daniel Freeman '10 dominated its Lehigh opponent in opening day play 8-1.
In singles play, however, Freeman was unable to overcome the tough play of Stony Brook freshman star Quirjn Van Veen, who prevailed 7-6, 6-3. Justin Tzou '10 excelled in his first match winning the first nine games against his Holy Cross Opponent. The match ended in a dominant 6-0, 6-2 victory for Tzou and the Big Green.
The Big Green remained tough through the third day of play. The Waslen/Freeman doubles team beat out Boston College's No. 1 doubles team 8-5 to set the stage for the singles matchups later that day.
Playing against the No. 17 seed of the tournament, Pat Rathford of Columbia, Tzou fought back from a first set loss to win his second set before being forced into a tiebreaker. Tzou won the match by winning the tiebreaker 7-3.
Jeff Schechtman '08 suffered a disappointing match against opponent Dan Brouss, losing 6-0, 6-2. Waslen played an exciting singles match against hometown favorite Brandon O'Gara of Penn. Because of difficulties with his serve, Waslen dropped the first set 6-4. However, the Dartmouth senior battled through a tight second set, eventually winning 7-6 after taking a 7-2 tiebreaker.
Unfortunately the Big Green men lost all their matches in the round of 32.
Waslen and Tzou lost singles matches to the No. 1 and No. 2 players from Virginia Tech 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 and 6-2, 6-1, respectively. The Waslen/Freeman doubles team lost to a strong team from Harvard 9-8 (9-7).
Despite the losses, Waslen was very happy with his team's performance. "The next step will be to push a little harder and close out the tight matches," Waslen said. "There's no reason that anyone on our team -- especially myself -- can't win any given match we play in, so we now need to get the job done and seal it when the match is at our fingertips."
