NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- The Christopher Newport women's tennis team saw action for the first time in the 2024-25 season on Friday evening as the Captains welcomed Division I Hampton University to the James T. and Sarah C. Eyre Courts for the Captains Mock Dual Invite. CNU captured one doubles win and two singles victories in the opener including the first career win for rookie
Kendal Chang.
The Captains and Pirates were locked in a tightly-contested matchup throughout the evening with four of the nine completed matches being extended to a tiebreaker. In singles play, CNU secured a pair of victories behind Chang and sophomore
Erin Gross while
Raine Weis and
Samantha Robertson paired up for the doubles win on Friday.
Chang outlasted her opponent in singles, Melis Sakiroglu, for her first career win as a member of the Captains. She secured a 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (8) victory to improve to 1-0 on the season with her first career win against a Division I opponent.
Also earning a DI win on Friday was sophomore
Erin Gross as she downed Jewel Greene by a final score of 6-2, 6-0. The score was the most lopsided of the day for either team as CNU managed to win at least five games in each of the remaining bouts.
Weis won the first set against Meiri Okuwaki before her Hampton counterpart rallied to squeak out a close win in the second. Then, in the third set tiebreaker, the two were back and forth before Okuwaki finished off the win 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (7). All three of
Kylie Schaefer's sets were extended to extra points as she faced off against Masa Mitic. After falling in the first set 7-6 (2), the CNU sophomore rebounded with a dominant breaker win in set number two 7-6 (0). Like Weis, Schaefer was in the hunt for the win in the third set tiebreaker but ultimately suffered a 7-6 (2), 6-7 (0), 1-0 (6) loss.
In doubles action, Weis picked up right where she left off in her dominant junior season despite playing with a new partner for the first time in three years. Pairing up with sophomore
Samantha Robertson, Weis earned her 49th career doubles victory with a quick 6-3 dispatching of Serena Bryan and Diana Starodubtseva. Hampton took the other two doubles matches with
Mia Linam and Schaefer suffering a 6-3 loss while
Lindsey Bergelin and
Eva Taylor narrowly missed against Green and Sakiroglu, 7-6 (7-3).
Christopher Newport will return to action on Saturday with mock dual tournament action against Longwood University.
