#17 Swarthmore Slips Into Second Place
LANCASTER, Pa. -- The Garnet women's tennis team got two wins apiece from Marissa Matthews '07, Sara Sargent and Erica Lukoski '08 on their way to a 6-3 win at Franklin & Marshall Saturday afternoon. Swarthmore, ranked sixth in the Atlantic South region, improved to 7-1 in the Centennial to gain a leg-up in the race for the No. 2 seed at the upcoming Conference championship tournament in Baltimore, Md. on April 28-29.
The Diplomats (11-4, 8-2 CC) are ranked 11th in the Atlantic South region and became the fifth regional-opponent Swarthmore has defeated in 2006-07.
Matthews and Lukoski remained unbeaten in doubles' action (5-0), taking down F&M's Jenna Ishkanian and Christina Henkel 8-1 at No. 2. Sargent won with freshman Rebecca Committo at No. 3, breezing past the Diplomats' Danielle Barish and Dana Russo 8-3 to put Swarthmore (9-5 overall) up 2-1 after doubles' action.
The Garnet, ranked 17th in the country, picked up easy singles' wins at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5, dropping only three games. Sargent downed Erica Wood 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3 to improve her Centennial record to 6-1. Lutz remained undefeated (5-0) in the Centennial by defeating Barish 6-0, 6-1 at No. 4 while Lukoski won her third consecutive match with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Russo at No. 5.
Matthews won at No. 2 for the first time in 2006-07, fighting past F&M's Barbara Bee to win 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-7).
Swarthmore has two matches left in the regular season, traveling to McDaniel tomorrow for a 1:00 p.m. match and then back home to meet Dickinson on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.