Rackets Split Two

The Yeowomen looked to continue their winning ways at a dual match against Wittenberg University and Earlham College on April 15th, held in Springfield, OH on the Wittenberg campus. The Yeowomen's first opponent was conference rival Earlham College, which proved to be a cakewalk. Sarah Jesse, Laura Koehn, and Leah Corn all defeated their opponent 6-1, 6-0, while freshman Alaina Fotiu-Wojtowicz defeated her challenger 6-0, 6-0. Beth Krupski had a more difficult time against her Quaker opponent, who forced a tie-breaker set. Beth won the first set 6-4, but her challenger battled back to take the second 6-4. It became apparent who the more hungry player was in the tie-breaker set, as Krupski eeked out a hard-fought 7-5 victory. Seventh singles competitor Robin Richardson walked away with a 6-4, 6-0 victory under her belt.

OC also dominated the doubles competition. The Jesse-Fotiu-Wojtowicz duo stormed over their opponent 8-1, while Krupski-Brockelman managed to outlast their foe 8-6. Koehn and Sophomore Lindsay Butler also won their match 8-1. The women stole all nine matches from the Quakers and improved their overall record to 12-4.

The women carried their momentum into the next game against Wittenberg, who, like the Yeowomen, is a contender in the upcoming conference tournament. The women were impressive in all of their singles matches, and all but one of the Yeowomen were able to walk away with personal victories. The lone dark spot in singles competition was the performance of Fotiu-Wojtowicz, who fell to her opponent 6-3, 6-4. In doubles action, OC continued to dominate competition, winning two out of the three matches. The pair of Butler-Koehn fell to their opponent Wittenberg opponent, but OC was still able to walk away with their heads held high and a 7-2 victory. The Yeowomen improved to 13-4.

Part of the Yeowomen's success stems from their depth. "With most teams you only have a couple of good players," said senior Jill Brockelman. "But with our team, we are strong all the way down."

The men also traveled to Springfield for a dual meet against Earlham and Wittenberg, though with considerably less success. Sophomore Rich Raz won his singles match 7-5, 6-1 and first-year Jason Criscione vanquished his Quaker opposition 6-2, 6-2, but no other Yeomen was to taste victory in singles play. The same stroke of bad luck fell upon the team in doubles play as well, as Oberlin dropped all three matches to Earlham, to bring the final score to 7-2. The Yeomen were next blown out by Wittenberg 9-0, dropping their record to 6-11.

The women's team is leaving soon to compete in regional competition in Wisconsin, and they are confident that they can compete. "We have already played our largest threat, which is Kenyon," said Brockelman, "and it comes as no surprise that we lost to them, since they go to nationals every year."

This past Wednesday, the Yeowomen faced the Ladies of Kenyon College once again, less than 48 hours before they were to compete in Regional Competition. The Yeowomen lost again to Kenyon, dropping their record to 13-5. The men's game was not played because of adverse weather conditions but will be rescheduled. Both teams will be at Allegheny this Saturday.