Ladies tennis swept Baldwin Wallace University (Berea, Ohio) 9-0 in a home match on Saturday. The Ladies (2-2) had fire in their eyes as they prepared to face the Yellow Jackets (2-4) for their fourth match of the year. Rebounding from two tough losses, the Ladies put themselves back on track as they tallied their second win of the season, evening up their overall record to 2-2 for 2016.

“Basically we just needed to up our consistency a little more and realize that we have to play within ourselves,” Assistant Coach Alvin Cheng said — and the Ladies did just this in all nine of their games against Baldwin Wallace.

Picking up a big point for the Ladies was Maggie Sweeney ’19 who played her first match for Kenyon as the first-seat in singles. “I had a goal to win a point for my team, and I wanted to keep that goal and stay focused,” Sweeney said after the match. She keep that goal, beating her opponent Kelsey Blatt  6-3, 7-6 in one of the tougher matches of the day.

Also gaining an important victory at the outset of the matches were Diana Aboubakare ’18 and Samantha Murphy ’16, who defeated Baldwin Wallace’s Blatt and Imani Robinson by a margin of 8-0 in the first doubles spot. This win got the Ladies rolling, eventually gaining two more points with teams of Jenna Murray ’17 and Annie Reiner ’19 as well as Claire Cohen ’16 and Alyssa Moreau ’18, both of which won their doubles match-ups.

On the singles side, each Lady who competed found success against her Yellow Jacket opponent, including Murray, Murphy, Reiner, Elise Altschuler ’16 and Katherine McCauley ’19 playing in the second through sixth singles spots, respectively.

Overall, there were few errors to be found with Saturday’s performance, and the Ladies aim to bring this positive energy to their future matches.

Looking forward to this next weekend, the Ladies have two tough home matches against North Carolina Wesleyan College (Rocky Mount, N.C.) on Saturday, and California University of Pennsylvania (California, Pa.) on Sunday. This win against Baldwin Wallace, however, put the Ladies exactly where they want to be.

“After we lost two matches in a row, this win, especially with 9-0, gives us good momentum going into the weekend,” Sweeney said.

Cheng feels positively about the rest of the 2016 season ahead of the Ladies. “Realizing the depth of the team is so good because it allows people to play freely,” he said. “We know we’re a strong team so players just need to worry about performing on their court and getting their point.”