Women's Tennis

Meghan Damico was leading her singles match with with Katie Tabb when the Generals clinched the victory with their fifth point.

The Denison Big Red's quest for their first women's tennis national championship came to an end on Wednesday following a 5-1 loss to defending national champion, Washington & Lee, in the semifinals of the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championships from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Thomas, Minn.

The Big Red improved to 21-3 after Tuesday's quarterfinal victory over Emory.  Today's match versus the top-ranked and unbeaten Generals marked Denison's first appearance in the NCAA semifinals in school history.  In fact, it had been exactly two months to the day since Denison's last loss, which just so happened to have come against this same Washington & Lee squad on March 14 in Lexington, Va.  Since that 8-1 defeat, the Big Red won 16 consecutive matches, their seventh straight conference championship and moved all the way to No. 5 in the Division III national rankings.

Today's semifinal got started in a similar fashion to yesterday's quarterfinal.  After the three doubles points Denison found themselves trailing 2-1.  Like yesterday, that one point came at third doubles from senior Erin Gorsich (Dover, Ohio/Dover) and sophomore Kara Zdanowski (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) who defeated Virginia Dickinson and Kelly Will, 8-2.

Meghan Damico (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) and Kendra Murray (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) were locked in a battle with Catherine Reed and Leah Weston.  Last time these duos faced off, W&L squeezed out a 9-8 (7-5) tiebreaker victory over DU.  This time it didn't need a tiebreaker but things were tight, as the Generals prevailed 8-6 to enter singles play with a 2-1 lead.

Weston at No. 4 singles and Meg Spalitta at No. 6 would get the ball rolling for the defending champs as they bumped the score to 4-1 with four matches yet to be decided.  Weston defeated Denison's Gorsich 6-1, 6-1 and Spalitta handled Murray 6-0, 6-4 putting the Generals just one point away from the NCAA championship match.

That fifth and final point would come from the second flight where Will completed a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Denison freshman Kristin Cobb (Dayton, Ohio/Oakwood).  Of the three singles matches that were left unfinished, the Big Red were leading two of those contests as Damico took the first set from Katie Tabb, 6-3 and was sitting at match-point in the second when the match was stopped.  Zdanowski also was leading her second set against Rebecca Timmis at No. 5 singles. 

The win improves Washington & Lee's record to 28-0 and moves them into tomorrow's championship match against Williams College.  Denison will take the court at 9 a.m. on Thursday to determine the nation's third place team.  Their opponent will be Pomona-Pitzer, who suffered a 5-2 semifinal loss to Williams.

While the majority of the Denison team will return home after tomorrow's match, Damico, Marta Drane (Wilmington, Del./Tower Hill) and Cobb will remain in Minnesota for the singles and doubles championships.  Damico and Cobb will compete in the singles championships while Drane and Cobb will represent the Big Red in the doubles championship.  Those tournaments will begin on May 16 and wrap-up on May 18.

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