LEXINGTON, Va. -- In a top-25 showdown at the Duchossis Tennis Center in Lexington, Virginia, the 25th-ranked Christopher Newport women's tennis team suffered its first loss of the season with a 5-2 setback to No. 22 Swarthmore College (1-2). Head coach David Weiner also announced a schedule change for Sunday's action at the Groundhog Palooza event hosted by Washington & Lee University as CNU will postpone its matchup against the hosts and will now face 18th-ranked Case Western Reserve at 9:00 a.m. 

The Captains dropped to 2-1 on the season after the setback while the Garnet secured their first win to improve to 1-2 on the year. 

Swarthmore secured the doubles point and fought off the Captains in a wildly competitive round of singles play. Four of the six singles bouts either required a tiebreaker or a third set as CNU battled against the nationally-ranked foe. Leading the way, sophomore Kendal Chang and junior Kylie Schaefer each captured wins for the Captains. 

Playing at No. 1, Chang squeaked by Erin Li in the first set, 7-6 (2), but rolled to the match victory with a 6-3 victory in the second set. At No. 2, Schaefer grabbed the other team point after bouncing back from a first set loss. Schaefer rallied to win, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1, against Lola Diaz. 

The match flipped in favor of Swarthmore in a pair of three-set victories at No. 3 and 4. Eva Taylor was locked in a marathon against Lisa Messier at No. 3, playing to a pair of tiebreakers as the duo split the first two sets. Messier wound up pulling away in the third for the point, but Taylor put up a valiant effort in a 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-3 win for the Garnet. At No. 5, Samantha Robertson was equally as stubborn before surrendering an evenly-matched bout against Kathleen Shiff. Robertson won the first set, 6-2, before Shiffer pulled out a 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 win. 

Christopher Newport will now face the 18th-ranked Spartans of Case Western Reserve (3-1) at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday. Originally scheduled to play Washington and Lee, the Captains negotiated a change in schedule to make sure that teams needing to travel through the impending winter storm were protected and able to do so. CWRU suffered a 5-2 loss to the host Generals on Saturday after winning the first three matches at home against No. 38 Hope, Rochester, and No. 32 Denison. Live video will be available with the link found on the women's tennis schedule at CNUsports.com.