No. 39 Princeton Defeats No. 37 Lions 4-1

Friday, April 12

New York, N.Y./Dick Savitt Tennis Center

1:00 PM

Columbia University

Princeton

Photo by: Columbia University Athletics/Mike McLaughlin

4/12/2019 7:55:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Match Boxscore (PDF)

Junior Ali Pollack claims win at No. 6 singles; Lions drop to 13-3 overall and 2-2 in the ivy League.

NEW YORK—In a key Ivy League women's tennis matchup featuring the conference's two nationally ranked teams, No. 39 Princeton won a 4-1 decision over No. 37 Columbia Friday afternoon at Dick Savitt Tennis Center. The loss drops Columbia to 13-3 overall and 2-2 in Ivy League play. Princeton improves to 15-4 overall and 4-0 in the Ivy League.

"I was very impressed with the way Princeton competed today," Columbia Head Coach Ilene Weintraub said. "Grace Joyce specifically was very impressive today at No. 3, against Christie Wan. In doubles, we had close matches on the first and second court and we weren't able to convert. We had a lot of opportunities. If we maybe had converted a couple of those opportunities, the momentum would have been in our favor from the beginning and that would've made a big difference."

Princeton went up 1-0 and earned the doubles point after winning two doubles matches. Princeton's No. 3 doubles team of Stephanie Schrage and Nathalie Rodilosso defeated Columbia sophomore Jennifer Kerr and first-year Melissa Sakar 6-0. The other two matches were tough back-and-forth affairs and the Lions built leads in both, but failed to win either. Princeton claimed the doubles point when Nicole Kalhorn and Brianna Shvets came back to defeat Columbia first-year Akanksha Bhan and sophomore Paulina Ferrari 7-5 at No. 1 doubles. Bhan and Ferrari led 5-4 but couldn't complete the win.

Columbia junior Ali Pollack won her fourth victory of the year at No. 6 singles, easily defeating Rodilosso 6-1, 6-3 and tying up the match at 1-1. But Princeton claimed three straight singles matches at No. 4, No. 2 and No. 3 to win the match. Princeton's Clare McKee won a 6-3, 6-2 match over Sakar at No. 4 singles, Shvets won a 6-4, 6-4 match over Bhan at No. 2 singles and Princeton's Grace Joyce came back from getting hit in the head to defeat sophomore Christie Wan 7-5, 6-2 at No. 3 singles.

The Lions led both of the unfinished matches as senior Andrea Kevakian held a 6-3, 5-4 lead at No. 5 and Kerr led a close match at No. 1 singles 6-2, 1-6, 3-0. Neither had the chance to finish.

"We were able to win pretty quickly at No. 6 singles and Andrea was up at set at No. 5 singles," Weintraub said. "If we had gone into singles with a 1-0 lead it might have been different."

Three regular season Ivy League matches remain for Columbia, including two at home next weekend. Columbia plays at Penn on Sunday, then returns home to complete its regular season against Dartmouth (Saturday, April 20 at noon) and Harvard (Sunday, April 21 at Noon).