ATLANTA (March 23, 2013) – In a match that lasted over six and a half hours, the No. 19 Sewanee women's tennis team rallied from a 4-1 deficit to defeat No. 15 Washington & Lee, 5-4, Saturday during action at the prestigious Fab 7 Invitational at Emory University.
After losing two quick doubles points, Sewanee got on the board when Annie Veron and Julia Wood won at No. 3 with a close 9-8 victory over Chelsea Mixson and Claire Cahill.
Up by one, 2-1, when singles play got underway, W&L came out strong. The Generals rolled at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions which gave W&L a strong 4-1 advantage.
Down to the their last point, the Tigers need a big rally just to stay alive. Sewanee began its comeback when Bronte Goodhue won over Sonja Meighan at No. 1 singles 6-3, 6-3. In fact, Meighan is currently ranked No. 5 nationally by the ITA in singles.
The Tigers continued to respond when Veron pulled Sewanee to within one point, 4-3, with her 6-2, 6-2 straight set win over Allison Hupalo.
Despite all their work to close the gap, the Tigers still had an uphill battle when Anne Garland dropped her first set 6-1. Still needing only one point, W&L's chances of a victory looked strong with Cahill leading in the second. With her back against the wall, Garland rallied. The Richmond, Va., native eventually forced a second-set tiebreaker, which she won 7-5.
While Garland's three-hour match played out, Wood found herself in a battle with Mixson. After losing the first three games, Wood rallied to force a first-set tiebreaker. In the extra games, Wood eventually prevailed at 7-6.
From there, Wood would go on and win a close second set 7-5 after breaking Mixson and holding serve late.
With the score now tied at 4-4 all eyes turned back to Garland and Cahill. After her huge rally in the second set, Garland wasted little time in the third closing out the victory at 6-1.
The Tigers will now wrap up the Fab 7 with an 11:00 a.m. match against No. 16 Tufts, Sunday.
The three-day event has featured some of the top teams in the country. Along with Sewanee, W&L, and Tufts, host No. 4 Emory has played along with No. 2 Amherst, No. 12 Washington University, and No. 1 Johns Hopkins.
For more information on Sewanee Athletics, please visit www.SewaneeTigers.com. You can also check the Tigers out on Twitter (Sewaneeathletic) and Facebook (SewaneeAthletics).
