Bulldogs Win All Singles Matches in Straight Sets

ATLANTA – A day after seeing its eight-match winning streak snapped with a loss at No. 7 Georgia, the No. 24 Yale women's tennis team responded by sweeping No. 49 Purdue 7-0 in a neutral-site match at Piedmont Park. The Bulldogs won each singles match in straight sets.

Yale (12-3, 0-0 Ivy League) claimed the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2. Purdue (7-4, 1-0 Big Ten) had won the doubles point in seven of 10 matches before Thursday. At No. 1, junior Vicky Brook and senior Lindsay Clark knocked off the No. 25 doubles team in the country, Purdue's Jennifer Rabot and Mara Schmidt, 8-3. Junior Stephanie Kent and freshman Annie Sullivan followed with a win at No. 2. Purdue won at No. 3 in a tiebreaker.

Sullivan was the first to finish her singles match, winning at No. 6. She has now won 9 of her last 10 singles matches. No. 118 sophomore Elizabeth Epstein was next to finish, giving Yale a 3-0 win with a victory at No. 2. Brook then clinched the match, beating Rabot at No. 1.

Freshman Blair Seideman then won at No. 3, and Kent won at No. 4 after rallying from a 5-4 deficit in the first set. Senior captain Stevi Petrelli finished the sweep with a win at No. 5. She rallied from a 4-3 deficit in the second set for the victory.

This was the first time this season Purdue has been swept. The Boilermakers' worst loss prior to this was a 6-1 loss to No. 33 South Carolina.

The Bulldogs conclude non-league play by hosting Quinnipiac and Fairleigh Dickinson on Mar. 27 at Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center. The team is holding a food and clothing drive on that day.

Report by Sam Rubin '95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity