Last weekend, the women’s tennis team pulled out an impressive win against Otterbein University in what seemed to be a never-ending match. During the five and a half hour contest the Yeowomen never let up, finishing with an 8–1 victory.

The team swept all three of the first doubles matches. Senior Farah Leclercq and sophomore Grace Porter were 8–4 winners in the top spot, and seniors Preeya Shah and Brenna Sheldon took the second spot by the same score. The No. 3 doubles first-year pair of Erin Johnson and Ariana Abayomi fought hard for their 9–8 win.

“We’ve had a really strong start to our spring season,” said Abayomi. “We’ve won our last three matches. For us freshman, this is very exciting to be part of such a tough and unified team.” The strength in the women’s tennis program can be seen in their 23–1 record in individual matches.

Abayomi also had a striking performance in her singles match: a two-set match that lasted two and a half hours. She finally defeated Otterbein’s Adrien Leatherwood, going to tie breaks in both sets to do so. She was a 7–6 (7–5) winner in the first and edged out a 7–6 (11–9) victory in the second to earn the win. Shah won 6–3, 6–2 at No. 3, while Porter followed with a 6–1, 6–3 victory over Emma Krummel in the fourth slot.

Johnson also had a notable singles match, taking the first set 6–3 and the second set 6–1. “Our training made me especially prepared for my second match — I was able to think on my feet even when I was exhausted,” she said.

Leclercq came up short to Julie Stroyne in the No. 1 singles match, but her teammates rallied and would not drop a single set the rest of the way through. At No. 2, Brenna Sheldon triumphed against Sammi Kruger, winning both sets by a huge 6–0 margin. The impressive victory earned Sheldon North Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Week.

“I think our coach pointed out that this has been the longest 8–1 match in the history of Oberlin,” first-year Alexandra Kahn said. “The victory was sweet because our best cheerleader, Gene Michael, our coach’s son, turned one!” A year ago during this same match, Coach Ananiadis was absent because of the birth of his son.

On Friday, the Yeowomen take on Case Western Reserve University on their home turf at 4:30 p.m. With this being one of the toughest matches of the year, hopefully they can pull out another victory.