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No. 72 Dartmouth
No. 47 Cal Poly Edges No. 72 Dartmouth, 4-3
3/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
BOX SCORE
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – A sweep of the doubles point and singles victories by junior Jocelyn Davis and freshmen Florence Lehane and Kathryn Webb propelled the 47th-ranked Cal Poly women's tennis team to its seventh-successive victory on Tuesday afternoon as the program slid past No. 72 Dartmouth on Mustang Courts, 4-3.
Cal Poly (12-3, 4-0), having matched its highest spot in the ITA National Rankings this season, opened Tuesday's triumph by earning the doubles point for the 29th time during the previous 38 outings. At No. 1, Mustang junior Amy Markhoff and sophomore Alexa Lee combined to win their sixth-straight match with an 8-5 toppling of Molly Scott and Melissa Matsuoka. Davis and senior Ashley Pane prevailed at No. 2 versus Ryan Reichel and Georgiana Smyser, 9-8 (10-8), before the freshmen pairing of Lehane and Gabrielle Gatewood finalized the doubles sweep at No. 3 with an 8-4 win against Jeri Reichel and Christina Danosi.
Dartmouth's Scott rebounded in singles action to prevail at No. 1 versus Lee, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, before Lehane returned to post a 6-2, 6-3 sweep of Leonard at No. 2. Matsuoka swept Pane at No. 3 (6-4, 6-4) and Ryan Reichel pulled out a 7-5, 2-6 (10-8) victory versus Mustang freshman Jennifer Cornea to temporarily tilt the match in Dartmouth's favor. However, Davis downed Danosi at No. 5 (7-5, 6-0) and Webb (above) topped Smyser (6-3, 6-4) at No. 6 to provide Cal Poly its second victory against a ranked foe during a four-day span.
"Dartmouth had already beaten a highly-ranked team in Virginia Tech, so we knew they'd be a challenge for us. I was a little concerned about our players coming off of finals last week, but they have a lot of resolve and tremendous motivation and fought hard today and during Saturday's win versus (66th-ranked) Texas-Arlington," 11th-year Cal Poly head coach Hugh Bream said.
Cal Poly will enjoy a four-day break before resuming practice ahead of a Friday, April 1 contest at Pacific. The outing versus the Tigers kickstarts a four-match road trip that also includes No. 44 Long Beach State (April 9) and No. 37 Pepperdine (April 10).
"We're happy to be 4-0 in the Big West, but I feel the last half of our conference schedule is going to be even more challenging," Bream added. "Our goal remains to be the most improved team in the nation this year and I believe we can use our challenging schedule during the next month to help us reach that goal."
