Women Netters Blank New Hampshire In Season Opener
September 19, 2000 | Women's Tennis
The Terrier women's tennis team, which has dominated the America East Conference for more than a decade, showed it will be the team to beat again this year with a season-opening 9-0 win over conference rival University of New Hampshire at the Nickerson Field courts on Sept. 19.
B.U. has won the conference title the past seven years and 12 times overall. The past two years, the team advanced to the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons.
In Tuesday's match against the Wildcats, B.U.'s top three players had straight set victories, while numbers four through six had relative ease in winning their pro-set match.
In addition, in all three doubles matchups, B.U. players swept to victories to account for the final points.
The afternoon began with the three doubles matches where head coach Lesley Sheehan matched a veteran upperclassman with a freshman.
At number one, senior co-captain Carrie Rose (Bloomfield Hills, MI) and freshman Lindsey Dynof (Colts Neck, NJ) defeated New Hampshire's Lindsay Johnson and Kim LeDonne, 8-4. At number two, sophomore Alana Marcu (Leonia, NJ) and freshman Elisa Glas (Irun, Spain) eliminated Chelsea Tusdaman, 8-3. Finally, sophomore Andrea Nickel (Vancouver, BC) and freshman Elena deMendoza (Madrid, Spain) blanked Cara Simprini and Alyssa Freeman, 8-0.
"I wanted to mix the doubles teams so that we had an upperclassman with a freshman," said head coach Lesley Sheehan. "The intent was to have the freshmen understand our doubles patterns and how each player communicates with each other.
"Based on what I saw today, it worked out very well," the coach said after the match.
The singles was equally successful as no B.U. player lost more than two games in a set.
Carrie Rose defeated Lindsay Johnson, 6-0, 6-2, at number one. Alana Marcu, who played number six singles last year but has shown such excellent progress that she played number two against New Hampshire, did not lose a game as she rolled to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Chelsea Tusdaman. Elena deMendoza defeated Kim LeDonne, 6-1, 6-2 at number three, as these were the only matches that went two sets.
The other three singles matches were comprised of one eight-game set.
At number four, Elisa Glas defeated Jenny Witter, 8-2; Lindsey Dynof shut out Cara Simprini, 8-0, at number five; and senior co-captain Hsiao Ning Ham (Jersey City, NJ) defeated Alyssa Freeman, 8-5, at number six.
"We had a very young team out on the court today," said Coach Sheehan. "There were four freshmen in the lineup, and six of the nine matches involved underclassmen."
It should be noted that this year's freshman class is a veteran group as far as their tennis background is concerned. All have played on the sectional level, while others have competed on the national and international levels.
"I think we are very solid from numbers one through nine, and it's going to be very difficult to determine who will play this year," continued the coach. "I was very happy with what I saw today."
