Guest Post from Frank Barnes about Women's NCAA's

Women’s 2013 NCAA D-III first three rounds.

On Friday the team piled in a couple vans along with myself and Coach Scanlan.  Energy was high and we had a great trip down.  We made it to the host site (University of Chicago) by around 4pm for our practice session.  It was cold (about 40 degrees) and windy, but that did not stop us from working hard and getting ready for Saturday match against the winner of Carleton/Grinnell.  We had a first round bye, and Carleton beat Grinnell on Friday, so this set up a rematch of an earlier match this year when we edged Carleton 5-4 back in April.

Carleton is loaded with talent, so we were prepared for a battle.  In doubles we started off down in all three positions.  We were down a break at #1, down 2-4 at #2 and down 0-3 at #3, each team fought back and we cruised to 8-5 and 8-6 wins at #2 and #3.  Now all eyes were on the top court as Divelbiss/Bayliss battled Carleton’s top pair that has been selected as an NCAA individual qualifying doubles team as one of the region’s top four teams.  The score was 6-6 and the teams fought a long game, but the Hawks were broken and were unable to break back, losing 8-6, but team still held a 2-1 lead heading into singles.  In singles week took four of the first sets, so the tables were set.  Sydney took the first set at #1, Bayliss took the first set at #2, Kasten at #4, and Williams at #6.  Bayliss was the first to solidify with her straight sets win, followed by Kasten, while Vitale and Aguilar each lost their matches putting the team score at 4-3.  So we needed either Williams to close it out, or Sydney who had just split sets to win in three.  Williams soon clinched it with a 6-3, 6-2 win at 6 for a 5-3 win.  At the NCAA tournament the remaining matches are stopped when one team gets to 5.

This second round win put the Warhawks into the round of 16 for the second consecutive year against the University of Chicago.  UChicago is the top ranked team in the region and #8 in the nation, so we knew we would have to play great tennis to beat them.  We did play very well and certainly pushed them in what ended up being a 3 hour 45 minute battle.  In doubles the Hawks fell pretty routinely at #2 and #3, but Divelbiss/Bayliss found themselves in another great battle.  This time it was against the top ranked double team in the region.  It was back and forth the entire way, until the Hawks took a break lead 7-6, but the Maroons broke back to make it 7-7. The Lady Hawk duo dug in and played some terrific net play taking the final two games to win 9-7 and keep the team alive only down 2-1 heading into singles.  We needed four points to steal the win, and we had 4 battles going a couple hours later.  Divelbiss had lost the first set, but was up 3-0 in the second set.  Bayliss was about to close out her match after winning the first set, and Kasten and Aguilar were in three setters.  Divelbiss was impressively battling and her match against top ranked Megan Tang and it went to 4-4 before she finally lost the fight.  Vitale and Williams had already lost so the team score was 5-1 and the other matches were stopped.

To see all the individual scores from the tournament, click here

What a terrific year for the Lady Hawks!!  To get 21 wins and finish in the sweet sixteen with such a difficult schedule is a testament to this team and our senior leaders.  It was sad to see the season end and the careers of 4 wonderful seniors (Lauren Aguilar, Sydney Divelbiss, Kelly Foster, and Megan Kasten), but it was nice to share this moment with all of our great families on Mother’s Day