Battle for regional rankings goes to Sagehens

ANAHEIM HILLS, Calif. – In a battle of two of the top-four teams in the West Region, the No. 21 Chapman University women's tennis team returned to action on Sunday and fell to No. 15-ranked Pomona-Pitzer Colleges 6-3 at the Anaheim Hills Racquet Club. After taking a 2-1 lead in doubles play, the Panthers dropped five of the six singles matches and fell to 8-6 overall.

Pomona-Pitzer and Chapman entered the match ranked Nos. 3 and 4 in the West by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).

Freshman No. 1 seed Sophia Duong earned Chapman's lone singles victory in an upset with a straight-sets win against Division III's No. 14-ranked Jamie Solomon from Pomona-Pitzer. Duong won the first set in a tiebreaker 7-6 before cruising in the second set 6-2. Solomon is ranked fifth in the West while Duong (unranked nationally) is No. 23 in the region.

After that, the Sagehens won the final five singles matches to earn the team victory. Only Chapman's No. 3 seed Genna Ford won a set, jumping out to a one-set lead over her opponent Kara Wang before falling in three sets 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.

Chapman had staked itself to a 2-1 lead early in the match by taking the Nos. 2 and 3 seed doubles matches. Duong and senior Cassady Sirois improved to 9-3 on the season with a 9-7 win on the third court. Meanwhile, senior Melissa Boyer and junior Amy Logan won the No. 2 doubles match 8-4 to improve to 9-7 as a pair this year.

The Panthers fell to 2-6 in eight matches against nationally-ranked opponents this season with one final regular season match to play against the West Region's top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Anaheim Hills Racquet Club.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

Boxscore: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/wten/2011-12/files/pp-cu

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