Box Score ELSAH, IL - The Principia Women's Tennis team's hosted conference rival Greenville on Tuesday for their first SLIAC match of the season. It was a warm evening on campus, so this was also the team's first outdoor home match of the spring. Principia came away with a hard fought 5-4 victory over Greenville that was decided by two comeback wins at #1 doubles and #2 singles.
After Principia got a solid 8-4 win at #2 doubles, and Greenville defeated Principia's #3 duo, the focus turned to the battle going on at court #1. Principia's top doubles team of Camila Gomez and Veronica Volkart started their match slowly, going down 4-0 very quickly. They began to turn the tide from there by making their shots and set each other up at net to even the match at 4 all. Gomez then lost her serve, and Greenville held serve to go up 6-4. After each team held serve again, Greenville was leading 7-5 with two match points with Gomez serving at 15-40. Gomez and Volkart fought back to hold serve, and then broke for a 7-7 tie to force a tiebreaker. The Principia duo capitalized on their momentum to take the breaker 7-3 for a huge point heading into singles up 2-1.
Principia took #1 singles (Camila Gomez) and #3 singles (Kelsie Huss) in straight sets, but Greenville answered with straight set wins of their own at #5 and #6. With the overall match score now 4-3, Principia just needed to win either #2 singles (Gaby Quintero) or #4 singles (Veronica Volkart) to get the team victory. Both matches split their first two sets, and for conference matches, the third set is a full set instead of a tiebreaker. With fatigue setting in on their third hour of play, the will of all four remaining players was tested as both matches went back and forth in the third. After Greenville's #4 was able to earn a 6-4 win to tie the overall score at 4, the result of the #2 singles match would now decide the team winner. Despite falling behind 4-2, Quintero was able to claw back with steely determination and steady play to win her final 4 games and pull out the huge comeback win.
Up Next: While the women's team celebrated their win over Greenville, they are also preparing for another home match against their other conference rival Webster on Thursday. The winner will determine the #1 seed for the conference championships in a few weeks. The team is looking forward to a great match at 5:15 PM - come out and support the Panthers!
FULL MATCH RESULTS:
