The Case Western Reserve University women’s tennis team faced Oberlin College last weekend on the Carlton Courts. The home court advantage proved useful, as the Spartans bested their opponents 7-2.

The day began with doubles matches. CWRU played well, winning two of the three matches. The first-year duo of Sneha Karnam and Shreyaa Mukund gave the Spartans an early lead with their win at second doubles. First-year teammates Nidhi Jha and Kristin Jones added to the Spartan lead with a win at third doubles. At first doubles, the duo of second-year students Madeleine Paolucci and Nicole Cardwell were unable to pull out a win, but the Spartans remained in the lead heading into singles play.

The CWRU women continued their success, again losing only one match. Cardwell competed at first singles, earning a 6-2, 6-4 victory. Karnam followed with a 6-2, 6-1 win at second singles. The victories continued to third and fourth singles. Mukund took third singles with a 6-2, 6-2 win and Jha finished her match with a 6-1, 6-0 win. The fifth win for the Spartans came at sixth singles, where Jones bested her opponent 6-2, 6-3. At fifth singles, first-year Spartan Eliza Georgiades fell 6-2, 6-3, the only Spartan loss at singles.

The following day, the women competed against John Carroll University. Just as they had the day before, the Spartans won two of their three doubles matches. Paolucci and Cardwell claimed an 8-1 lead at first doubles to start the day for CWRU. Karnam and Mukund followed with an 8-3 win at second doubles, putting CWRU up two. At third doubles, Jha teamed up with sophomore Mira Amin. The duo fell 8-5 to their opponent, but the Spartans maintained the lead at the start of singles matches.

Cardwell defeated her opponent at second singles to increase the lead for the Spartans. John Carroll then defeated Paolucci at first singles. CWRU claimed the next match when Karnam bested her opponent at fourth singles with a 6-2, 6-0 win. The next two points went to John Carroll when Mukund and Jones fell at fifth and sixth singles, respectively. The losses tied the score 4-4 with one match left to be completed. Amin played for the Spartans in third singles. She secured the deciding point, finishing her match with a 4-6, 6-1, 10-7 victory. The 5-4 victory gave the Spartans their second win of the weekend. The two victories snapped a three-match losing streak for the women and brought their overall record to 7-7.  

The team will return to action next weekend when they travel to Chicago to face Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Chicago. Washington University is currently ranked 16th in Division III and the University of Chicago is ranked ninth, whereas CWRU ranks 31st.