The University of Richmond women's tennis team defeated the Liberty University Flames 7-0 in a dominant performance on their Senior Day, Tuesday, April 9.
The Spiders, now 8-11 overall (3-0 in Atlantic 10 play), won all three of their doubles matches and all six of their singles matches.
For senior Mariana Arana, winning on senior day was meaningful. "Its great preparation for A-10's," Arana said. "The girls are starting to get the hang of it." But overall it's nice to get a win on senior day, she said.
Junior Elizabeth Sims won her singles match 6-0, 7-5. Sims also played line two doubles with senior Alexandra Smyth, winning 8-3. "It's really big for us to get this win for our seniors," Sims said. "Liberty are tough competitors and we're really excited about this one. It's big for our confidence going into A-10s."
The women have one more home match remaining against Georgetown University on Thursday before opening up A-10 tournament play on April 18 in Charlottesville, Va.
Today's win was the third in a row for the team. "This momentum going into A-10s is huge," Sims said. "We've had a lot of injuries this year and I think our freshmen have adjusted well. If everyone plays like we did today we have a really good shot in Charlottesville."
Coach Mark Wesselink was very pleased with his team's performance, he said. "This is the momentum we've been trying to build," Wesselink said. "This is just what we needed with such a young team. It was a good builder against a strong Liberty team."
The Spiders have had 17 winning seasons and nine NCAA tournament appearances during Wesselink's 21 seasons of coaching. Wesselink acknowledged that this has been has been one of his toughest seasons at Richmond.
"We lost our top two players from last year, and we've had a lot of injuries on top of that," he said. "But that's the way tennis is and it will make us better in the long run."
The Spiders have three seniors on their roster: Arana, Smyth and Ripley Hartmeyer. "I'm extremely happy for the seniors," Wesselink said. "Their contributions on and off the field have helped us win championships. It was a picture-perfect day."
Contact reporter Oliver Murphy at oliver.murphy@richmond.edu
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