Panthers put up a fight before elimination

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -  Faced with the difficult task of playing the No. 2-seeded doubles team in the opening round at the NCAA Division III women's tennis national championships, Chapman University sophomores Liz Lewis and Kelley Fox gave the heavily-favored Tufts University (Mass.) duo all it could handle before succumbing to elimination on Friday afternoon in Lawrenceville, Ga.

Tufts' Julia Browne and Meghan McCooey defeated the Panthers in three sets 7-6, 5-7, 7-6 (5) in a marathon match that lasted nearly four hours to advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament.

The Chapman tandem, making its first appearance in the national championship tournament, rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the third and decisive game to reclaim a 4-3 lead. Browne and McCooey went back up 5-4 and the see-saw battle continued until the Jumbos eventually won it in a tiebreaker.

The match was delayed and eventually moved from the Collins Athletic Club to a nearby indoor facility due to rain.

Earlier in the day, Lewis suffered heartbreak in the first round of the singles tournament. The two-time All-American fell to Amanda Wu from Carnegie Mellon University (Pa.), also in three sets 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 and was eliminated from championship contention for the second year in a row. Wu avenged a regular season loss to Lewis at Chapman in March.

Lewis and Wu were both unseeded in the tournament. Wu went on to upset the No. 7 seed in her next match to advance to the quarterfinals.

The West Region's No. 3-ranked player, Lewis finishes the season with a record of 22-5 - the winningest season ever for a Chapman female.

Complete tournament results available online: http://gcvb.org/ncaatennis/results.html