MASON, Ohio -- The Williams College women's tennis team (23-0) downed DePauw University (17-9) 5-0 in an NCAA Quarterfinal match this morning.

 

With the win the Ephs extended their overall win streak to 24, after concluding last season in the NCAA third place match with a win over Johns Hopkins. The loss drops DePauw to 17-9 on the year and concludes the Tigers' season.

 

The match began at 8 a.m. and twice during doubles play was halted when a light rain fell. The first rain delay lasted 28 minutes and the second one lasted 22 minutes.

 

At one doubles the Eph tandem of Julia Cancio and Mia Gancayco were the first off the court, posting an 8-2 win over DePauw's Claire Marshall and Maggie MacPhail and beating the first rain delay. "Mia and Julia beat a team that will play in the doubles tournament following the team tournament and that was a good result for us at the start," said Eph head coach Alison Swain.

 

The second match point for the Ephs came at two doubles where freshman Juli Raventos and sophomore Linda Shin jumped out to a 2-0 lead and expanded that lead to 5-2 before the DePauw duo of Julie Wittwer and Kaitlin Pickrell rallied to cut the Eph lead to one at 5-4. Raventos/Shin then built a 7-4 lead that Wittwer/Pickrell narrowed to 7-6, before the Ephs claimed the second point of the match with an 8-6 win.

 

At three doubles senior captain Rebecca Curran and junior Maya Hart posted the third point of the match for the Ephs with an 8-1 win over the DePauw pairing of Carolyn Huerth and Taylor Mahr. Curran, the Ephs' all-time win leader in doubles play, recorded her 108th win today. In her career

 

The Ephs took a 3-0 lead into singles play after sweeping the doubles.

 

"DePauw has six seniors in the lineup and they came out with a lot of fight," noted Swain. "I was pleased how we handled the two rain delays, coming out of them focused and ready and that made a difference," said Swain.

 

In singles play the Ephs won the first set in all six matches and then got a fourth match point from sophomore Hannah Atkinson who downed DePauw's Carolyn Huerth, 6-1, 6-0, at six singles.

 

The match-clinching point came at number one singles where sophomore Juli Raventos defeated DePauw's Claire Marshall, 6-2, 6-0. "Hannah and Juli played commanding singles," stated Swain.

 

The Ephs will be back in action tomorrow at 11 a.m. in the semifinal round, where they will play archrival Amherst for the fourth time this season.

 

Tomorrow's match versus Amherst will be the seventh time the longtime rivals have met in the NCAA Tournament and each team currenlty owns three NCAA Tournament wins over their archrival.