The Basics
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Score: #24 Johns Hopkins-5, #27 Swarthmore-4
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Records: JHU (10-6, 9-0 CC) • SC (13-2, 8-1 CC)
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Location: Baltimore, MD • JHU Tennis Courts
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The Short Story: The Johns Hopkins women's tennis team rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Swarthmore, 5-4, on Saturday afternoon to clinch the Centennial Conference regular season title.
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How it Happened
• The Garnet took the first point of the match when Nathalie Williams and Crystal Xu, the third-ranked doubles team in the region, beat junior
Anjali Devireddy and freshman
Aya Igaki-Meader at first doubles. Oyiva Kumaran and Spencer Watts then defeated senior
Jessica Liang and junior
Celina Liu, 8-5, to give Swarthmore a 2-0 lead. Sophomore
Ali Bader and junior
Emily Javedan prevented the doubles sweep with a hard-fought 8-7 (4) win over Sonia Varma and Erica Stutz at second.
• Devireddy then earned a quick 6-1, 6-3 win at first singles over Jenny Lewis to tie the match at two. Junior
Christina Huynh followed with a 6-0, 6-2 defeat of Kumaran at fourth and JHU led 3-2. Williams answered for the Garnet with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Igaki-Meader at second and the teams were tied at 3-3.
• Liu put the Blue Jays back on top when she beat Xu 6-3, 6-2 at fifth. But Varma responded with a close 6-4, 6-4 win over Bader at third and it was 4-4. All eyes turned to sixth singles to decide the match. Senior
Amanda Ruci held off Sophie Brown 7-6 (2), 7-5 in a thriller to secure the win for Hopkins.
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What it Means
• Hopkins improves to 30-19 all-time against the Garnet and has won 21 straight in the series.
• The Blue Jays extend the Centennial Conference record win streak to 139 matches. JHU has not lost a regular season conference match since April 23, 2006.
• Hopkins wins the regular season title for the 15
th consecutive season and will host the conference tournament for the 14
th straight year. There was no tournament in 2021.
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Up Next
• Johns Hopkins will play the winner of the first-round match between Franklin & Marshall and Washington College on Saturday, May 7.
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