Thursday afternoon proved to be a big one for Georgetown’s Tennis program. Both the men’s (7-5, 1-0 Big East) and women’s (4-11, 0-1 Big East) teams took on their rivals from across the river, George Mason. The women’s team dominated, winning 7-0, while Mason’s men’s team (7-14, 1-6 Atlantic 10) put up more of a fight, but the Hoya men still came out victorious, 4-3.
Junior Sydney Green of Mason (6-13, 2-5 Atlantic 10) stuck with Georgetown’s No. 1 seed, Junior Risa Nakagawa, but Nakagawa ultimately prevailed winning 7-5, 6-4. The No. 2 spot senior Sara Swift dominated Mason’s freshman Brianna Gibbs 6-1, 6-0. At the No. 3 position, Hoya Senior Drew Spinosa outlasted Mason freshman Hannah Yang 6-3, 6-4. Freshman Christine McCarthy of George Mason gave Senior Daphne de Chatellus her best, but Georgetown’s No. 4 spot came out on top 7-5, 6-4. No. 5 spot senior Casey Marx and No. 6 spot junior Sydney Goodson finished things up with victories over Freshman Kayleigh Hahn and Freshman Hannah Cianciola 6-0, 7-6 (4) and 6-2, 6-3 respectively.
The women earned their seventh point in the doubles match up, where they won 2 out of three sets. The No. 1 team lost, but the No. 2 combo of Junior Cecilia Lynham and Spinosa made up for it by besting Mason’s Yang and Cianciola 6-0. Swift and Goodson also won their doubles set against Nicole Haigwood and Hahn, 6-1.
On the men’s side of things, the Blue and Gray failed to pick up a win in the doubles point. The No. 3 duo of sophomore Ian Witmer and junior Michael Chen did pick up a win, but the top two teams both lost.
While the men’s doubles lacked, the singles made up for it. Freshman Connor Lee started off the winning with 6-4, 7-5 against his No. 2 opponent, senior Daniel Gutierrez. Fellow freshman Mark Militzer faced Mason’s sophomore Jakob Nielsen in perhaps the most nail-biting matchup of the day. He lost the first set 4-6, but won the second 6-3. Then with added pressure, the Hoya rookie beat out his opponent in a long 11-9 set. No. 1 Rohan Kamdar and No. 6 Charlie Sharton won the last two sets to give the Blue and Gray the edge. Kamdar beat sophomore Edward Ayers 5-7, 6-3, 10-4, while Sharton thwarted senior Giuliano Buzoianu 6-2, 6-0.
Both teams will play conference rivals Villanova’s men (9-13, 0-1 Big East) and women (10-9, 2-2 Big East) at home on Saturday. The women start things off at 10 a.m. with the men following at 2 p.m. For more updates and breaking news, follow @GUVoiceSports on Twitter.
