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| Sarah Duran |
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| Emma Saxton |
The outcome of The College of Wooster women's tennis team's final contest at Hilton Head Island, S.C. came down to the last match on the court, and first-year Emma Saxton pulled through to lift the Fighting Scots to a 5-4 win over Edgewood College on Tuesday evening.
Wooster (8-2) went 2-1 over its final three days of competition in South Carolina, and had just rallied itself back to take a 4-3 lead on Edgewood (14-4), thanks to first-year Meklit Minassie's 6-1, 6-3 win in the fifth flight. However, a win by Edgewood at No. 3 shifted all the attention to No. 6 singles. There, Saxton started strong and took set one 6-1 over Edgewood's Lydia Dean, only to have Dean rally back in set two, 6-2. Saxton rebounded to take the 10-game tiebreaker 10-7.
Earlier in the Edgewood match, junior Qingyue Li and sophomore Sarah Duran both improved to 8-0 this spring in singles with 6-0, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-3 wins out of flights one and two, respectively.
Duran and classmate Laura Haley picked up a point in doubles via an 8-3 decision at No. 1.
Wooster started its recent three-match stretch by knocking Southern Virginia University (6-1) from the ranks of the unbeaten on Saturday morning.
In that match, Wooster picked up a pair of points in doubles with Li and junior Shannon Sertz taking the top flight over Rachel Neeleman and Rachel Christensen 8-2, and Duran and Haley winning by an identical score at No. 2.
Sertz's impressive stretch carried over to singles, where she didn't drop a game in the third flight, while Li only dropped two in the top flight during her 6-0, 6-2 triumph.
On Monday, Wooster was unable to hold off a late rally by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (9-4), which topped the Scots 5-4.
Li and Duran were the Scots' two double-winners on the day. Duran and Haley took the top flight in doubles 8-6. Li was part of the Scots' 8-3 win at No. 2.
In singles, Duran won in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4, while Li needed a third-set 10-game tiebreaker to pull past Kimberly Steinert, 2-6, 6-1, 10-4.
Wooster's idle until a 4:30 p.m. match at Otterbein University (8-2) on Friday, March 29.