Men's and women's tennis teams compete in first matches of the season

The Emory Oxford men's and women's tennis teams traveled to play their first matches of the season.

The teams played two matches on Saturday. In the first match against Meridian Community College, the men lost 8-1, with the lone win coming from freshman Elliot Li in singles. He defeated his opponent 6-0, 6-0. The Eagles did get a win (5-4, 4-0) in doubles with the duo of freshmen Asher Seibel and Nolan Ely, but the score did not count toward the overall score.

Against MCC, the women lost 9-0 but had a strong showing from sophomore Shankari Theivanayagam. In singles, Theivanayagam won the first set by a score of 6-3, but lost the final two 6-2, 1-0 (5). With doubles partner freshman Mina Chen, the duo narrowly lost in the third set (2-4, 4-1, 5-3). 

In the later matches, the women were down 3-2 to Hinds Community College before the rain canceled the rest of the matches. Theivanayagam and Chen dominated in doubles (4-0, 4-0) while Chen got a win in singles (6-2, 6-0). Before the rain, freshman Olha Los was up 6-3, 4-3 in singles, as were teammates Theivanayagam (4-1) and freshman Lily Liu (5-4). 

For the men. Sophomore Peter Tracy got the only win as he defeated his opponent (6-0, 6-1) in singles. However, freshmen Ben Xi (5-7, 1-6) and sophomore James Gottlieb (4-6, 0-1) had strong showings against their opponents. 

Head coach Jonathan Bennett said that multiple sets went into deuce and some matches lasted around two hours, showing that the Eagles competed hard against their opponents. 

"Our players worked hard," he said. "There were some sets that could have gone either way."

The women next play at home at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 9. Both teams will travel the following day to face Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Match time is at 1 p.m.