ASHLAND, Va. – With Randolph-Macon up 4-2, senior Sarah Hinson (Nashville, N.C. / Northern Nash), sophomore Landon Aud (Fishersville, Va. / Wilson Memorial) and freshman Olivia Uzer (McLean, Va. / Langley) all edged out their Virginia Wesleyan competition to push R-MC over the hump and help secure the Randolph-Macon victory 7-2 in a critical Old Dominion Athletic Conference match in Ashland on Wednesday. Randolph-Macon moves to 7-3 on the season and 5-1 in the conference while VWU falls to 8-7 and 3-4 in the conference.
In #1 doubles action, junior Gaby Tersigni (Yorktown, Va. / York) and sophomore Kristin Dantzler (Williamsburg, Va. / York) teamed up for the first time, defeating VWU's Audrey Bally and Makayla Velic 8-2. Tersigni won her seventh doubles match of the year while Dantzler secured her sixth victory.
Junior Stephanie Yeager (Fairfax, Va. / Robinson Secondary) and Uzer found similar success against their opponents Katie Stamen and Kellen Phillips. In the duo's first pairing, both secured their sixth doubles win of the season with a 8-3 victory.
#3 doubles was one of the hardest fought matches all afternoon. Hinson and Aud battled back-and-forth with Kristina Sabelstrom and Taylor Witherspoon. The duo was down 5-4 before getting up 6-5. But the VWU pair finished a four game comeback to win 9-7.
With the 2-1 overall advantage heading into singles, Tersigni and Dantzler each won to help further R-MC's push to win. Tersigni beat VWU's Velic 6-1, 6-3 in #1 singles while Dantzler defeated Stamen 6-4, 6-2 at #3 singles. Tersigni is now 7-3 this season while Dantzler is 8-2.
In #2 singles, Yeager was defeated by Audrey Bally 4-6, 3-6.
That left R-MC in the hunt for a single win to secure the match victory. Uzer, playing at #4 singles; Aud, playing and #5 singles; and Hinson, playing at #6 singles were all in close matches at the time. Hinson had won her first set 7-5, while both Aud and Uzer won 6-3. Aud and Uzer were both closing in on victories, but their Marlin opponents gave the Yellow Jacket competitors quite the fight. Uzer needed to close out her match with a win by two -- a 7-5 second set victory; While Aud needed a tiebreak to win her match, winning 7-6 in the second set on the 9-7 deciding game.
Hinson also secured a Yellow Jacket win as darkness was closing in on the four hour match. Hinson won 6-4 in the second set. It was Hinson's first singles win of the year and closed out a 7-2 overall match win for Randolph-Macon.
R-MC will face Randolph in Lynchburg at 1:00 PM on Saturday.
