April 1, 2010
Box Score
BALTIMORE, MD - The 13th-ranked Johns Hopkins women's tennis team picked up a pair of shutout wins on Thursday over 23rd-ranked The College of New Jersey and Dickinson. The wins push the Blue Jays' record to 4-6 overall and 2-0 in the Centennial Conference. The Lions suffer just their second loss of the season, falling to 10-2, while the Red Devils slip to 5-4 (1-1 CC).
Hopkins rolled to its 32nd straight conference win with the shutout of Dickinson up in Carlisle, PA. The Blue Jays opened the match by sweeping the doubles to take an early 3-0 lead. Senior Ellen Berlinghof (Fort Washington, PA/Upper Dublin) and junior Abby Dwyer (Stuart, FL/Jensen Beach) picked up an 8-3 win at first over Alysia Rodgers and Sarah Linder. Sophomore Vanessa Charubhumi (East Elmhurst, NY/Stuyvesant) and freshman Yoko Hirase (Plano, TX/Plano West) won by an identical 8-3 score at third over Alex Bybel and Carla Cox. Junior Yasmine Elamir (Saddle River, NJ/Heritage Academy (SC)) and freshman Ariel Several (Gladwyne, PA/Friends' Central School) beat Joelle Nitzberg and Sarah Woodward at third, 8-4, to wrap up doubles.
In singles action, Hopkins won at second through sixth in straight sets, with first being decided by a super-tiebreaker. At third, Elamir did not drop a game in sweeping Woodward, 6-0, 6-0. Berlinghof won her 49th career match at fourth, losing just one game in a 6-0, 6-1 win over Leigh Oczkowski. She is now tied for third in program history in singles wins. Charubhumi beat Nora Hajnoczky 6-3, 6-3 at fifth. At second, Dwyer won 6-4, 6-1 over Nitzberg. Hirase won her fifth straight match, beating Bybel 6-1, 7-6 (7-1) at sixth. Several closed out the match at first with her win over Rodgers. She won the first set 6-3, but Rodgers came back to win the second by the same score. With Hopkins having already clinched the match, Several and Rodgers played a super-tiebreaker to decide the winner. Several prevailed 10-7 to complete Hopkins sweep of the match.
In the other match, Hopkins and TCNJ squared off in a rematch of the 2009 NCAA Second Round match, which the Blue Jays won 5-1. Hopkins swept the doubles matches and came from behind in three singles matches to beat TCNJ, 9-0. Freshmen Nandita Krishnan (Chennai, India/Sishya School) and Candace Wu (Yorba Linda, CA/Valencia) picked up the Blue Jays first point with an 8-3 win over Karisse Bendijo and Allison Tierney at second. Sophomores Courtney Boger (Doylestown, PA/Doylestown) and Mallory Willenborg (Miami Shores, FL/St. Thomas Aquinas) then won four of the final five games to beat Lauren Balsamo and Emily Petersack 8-6 at third. Senior Anita Bhamidipati (Egg Harbor Township, NJ/Egg Harbor Township High School) and sophomore Carolyn Warren (Boulder, CO/Fairview) wrapped up doubles play with a close 9-7 win at first over Jackie Shtemberg and Paige Aiello.
In singles, Wu quickly gave Hopkins a 4-0 lead in the match with a 6-1, 6-2 win at fifth over Balsamo. Bhamidipati then clinched the match with a 6-3, 6-2 win at third over Tierney. Krishnan became the first of three Blue Jays to rally from one-set deficits to win. She dropped her first set 6-4 to Bendijo but rallied to win 6-4 in the second and force a super-tiebreaker, which she won 10-8 to take the match. Willenborg then turned the same trick at fourth singles. She lost her first set, 6-1, to Stefanie Haar but won the second 7-5 and then 10-6 in a super-tiebreaker. Freshman Andrea Berlinghof (Dresher, PA/Upper Dublin) pushed Hopkins lead to 8-0 in the match with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Aiello. Warren completed the comebacks with one of her own, at first. After dropping the first set to Shtemberg, 6-2, Warren won the second 6-1 and the third, 6-4.
Hopkins returns to action on Saturday, April 3 as the Blue Jays travel to Collegeville, PA to take on Ursinus in Centennial Conference action. The match is slated to start at 1:00 pm.
