The Brandeis women’s tennis team started off their 2019 tennis season ranked No. 19 in the nation and played their first match in Rhode Island against Division I Bryant University. The match was played under Division I rules, which means there was no ad scoring, so the three doubles matches only counted as one point in the overall team score. The Judges started off strong in the doubles matches sweeping Bryant, but because of the Division I rule, it only counted towards one point to the overall team score. The Judges came short and finished the match with a 5-2 decision, with their second victory coming from the only victory the Judges found in the singles matches.
The Judges shinned in the doubles competition and completely swept Bryant University. In the first spot Olivia Leavitt ’19 and Lauren Bertsch ’21 won their match with a 6-4 decision. Leavitt and Bertsch finished last season as doubles partners. They went 7-3 as doubles partners finishing last season with a hard loss against Case Western Reserve, but that have come back stronger than ever for this season of competition and we’re excited to see how far they will go this coming season. In the number two slot, Keren Khromchenko ’19 teamed up with new doubles partner, Diana Dehterevich ’20, and produced a 7-5 victory for the Judges. This was Dehterevich’s dual match debut after transferring and missing her sophomore season due to an injury. The number three position was won by Sophia He ’19 and Ana Hatfield ’22, earned a 7-6 win and completed the sweep for the Judges.
Michele Lehat ’19 earned the single win for the Judges in the singles matches in the number six spot. She won three straight sets with the final scores being 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Khromchenko had an exciting singles match, making it all the way to a third set super-tiebreaker, at the number three spot. With the final scores at 4-6, 7-5 and 10-4, she ultimately fell to her opponent. Dehterevich was competitive with her opponent in the number one spot, but fell with the final scores at 6-4, 6-4. Leavitt kept her competition close with scores of 6-4, 6-3 in the number two spot, but could not pull away for another W for the Judges.
Brandeis return to the court during February break when they head to California for their annual trip, where they will face off against Caltech, Redlands and top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. They will return to their home court against MIT on March 9th.
