The Plymouth Women’s Tennis team served and returned for a 5-4 win over the University of Southern Maine on Wednesday afternoon at the PE Center courts. Plymouth improves to a 5-0 record.
The Panthers swept the doubles matches as Plymouth Senior Co-Captain Jaime Hazard and Junior Kate Olsen downed Southern Maine’s, Emily Jose and Sarah Mcleon, 8 to 4 in the first match. In the second doubles match Plymouth Freshman Jess Leone and Freshman Whitney O’Leary were down 2-1 early in the match but came back to win, 8-6. In the third and final doubles match, the Panthers Freshman Megan Sowers and Freshman Rachel Xavier dominated the match winning, 8-3.
In doubles matches, the first team to eight games wins the match and there is only one set. A game consists of winning four points, 15, 30, 40 then game. In scoring the single matches, each match will go to a maximum three sets, and each set is won when a player wins six games winning by at least a two game spread. If a game is tied at six apiece, then a tiebreaker takes place where each player alternates serve after every odd number of serves, the first to reach seven points in the tiebreak wins the set. There are a total of nine matches played: three doubles and six singles; the team with the most wins combined, wins the entire match.
In the singles matches, Hazard showed why she was named the Little East Conference for the second straight week in a row, by defeating Southern Maine’s Emily Jose, 6-1 7-6 (7-2). In the second match of the day, Olsen lost in three sets to Southern Maine’s Kate Welsh, 6-2 6-7 (4-7) 4-6. In the third match, O’Leary defeated Cohen, 6-4 6-0. In the fourth match of the day, Plymouth Junior Cally Thorup lost in straight sets to McLeon, 3-6 3-6. In the fifth match, Co-Captain Junior Lindsay Colletti also lost in straight sets to Laureen Fippinger, 2-6 0-6. And in the final match of the day, Plymouth Freshman Elizabeth Duell was defeated by Southern Maine’s Megan Allyn, 2-6 1-6.
Hazard kept her undefeated record in both singles and doubles improving her record in both to 5-0. “I did pretty good,” said Hazard of her match. “This girl we won in doubles and singles and she was really good, she had a really nice ground stroke, and I won tiebreak in the second set, so it was a really good match.” Hazard was also very excited on the play of the team overall. “Our team is winning right now, it looks like we are going to be undefeated for the whole season, we’re looking to go to New England’s and take first place in the conference.”
The Panthers will next travel to Umass Boston on Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. match and then return home for their final regular season match against Endicott College at the PE Center Courts for a 3:00 p.m. start.