Going into this past weekend’s three meets, the No. 15-ranked Case Western Reserve University’s women’s tennis team was undefeated 5-0 after sweeping all five of their opponents with 7-0 victories. However, the team suffered a slight setback this weekend in Newport News, Virginia. Up against three nationally ranked teams—No. 17-ranked Christopher Newport University, No. 30-ranked New York University and No. 6-ranked Johns Hopkins University—the Spartans had a challenging weekend where they ultimately fell 6-2 overall.
The squad’s first meet was against No. 17-ranked Christopher Newport where the Spartans extended their win streak to six after the Captains were defeated 5-2. CWRU secured the doubles point with fourth-year Anna Kan and third-year Elsa Syed winning the first contest of the day at second doubles 6-4 and third-years Asha Shukla and Ellior Rose defeating their Christopher Newport opponents 6-3 at third doubles. The Spartans also won four of the six singles matches with wins from third-year Katalina Wang (6-1, 6-3), fourth-year Lily McCloskey (6-4, 7-6 (7-5)), second-year Katie Wong (5-7, 6-2, 6-3) and Syed (6-3, 0-6, 7-6 (7-2)).
On Saturday, the Spartans suffered their first loss of the season against UAA opponent NYU. The morning started off strong, with the Spartans clinching the doubles point after a close match between doubles pair McCloskey and Wang and Violets Isabella Hartman and Victoria Wang. The Spartans eventually triumphed over the Violets 7-3 in the tiebreaker set and secured the doubles point. The singles matches also remained close, with NYU taking the ultimate victory after the Violets secured wins in the first, second, third and sixth singles matches.
McCloskey, one of the captains of the team, reflects on the matches played this weekend and comments on the thrilling doubles match with NYU.
“My favorite doubles match that we played was against NYU. In tennis, you have three doubles matches, and you have to win two out of three to get a doubles point. Kat and I were the last match on, and we were down several games where we were very close to losing the match. It’s easy to get really discouraged and just be like, ‘Oh, I’m not playing well today.’ We were able to fight back and ended up winning that match and the doubles point for the team, which was super exciting,” she said.
Another close match for the McCloskey and Wang pair came the following day, when the Spartans faced off against Johns Hopkins. The Spartans were once again able to clinch the doubles point after two close tiebreaker sets. McCloskey and Wang won first doubles 7-6 (9-7), and Kan and Syed won second doubles 7-6 (7-5). With the victory, McCloskey notched her 74th career double win and currently is two under Nithya Kanagasegar for the program record.
McCloskey had previously played doubles with former Spartan Hannah Kassaie, a top-nine finalist for the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year and the most decorated player in CWRU women’s tennis history. McCloskey talked about how she transitioned from being doubles partners with Kassaie to Wang.
“[Hannah Kassaie] was such a big part of the team. She was such a leader by example and really showed us how to work hard and just bring all that fight to every match. I definitely enjoyed playing with her and being friends with her outside of everything, but a lot of it is transferring the skills that I learned over these past three years and taking that same mindset into playing with someone new,” she commented. “I play with [Katalina Wang] now. We’re all really good friends outside of tennis too, so that helps. It’s a lot of taking that positivity and energy that Hannah always showed … Kat and I are able to do the same thing where we just try to have fun with every match, and that helps us play.”
As one of the captains, McCloskey has been really proud of the team and their performance.
“Reflecting on the season so far, I’d say it’s been a lot of fun. We’ve been performing pretty well, too. It’s been really great to see. We lost about half the team last year to graduating seniors. It was nice to see us bounce back and be able to rebuild. It has been really great. We were undefeated up until this past weekend. Even this past weekend, we played some really great matches, and everyone’s been working hard, so it’s great to see it all,” she said.
This coming weekend, the Spartans have another three meets where they will be facing off against No. 20-ranked Kenyon College, Ohio Northern University and No. 21-ranked Bowdoin College.