By Mitch Blankespoor
HOLLAND, Mich. – Trailing Hope College 4-2, the Kalamazoo College women's tennis team won two flights to tie a Tuesday afternoon match with Hope 4-4. Hornet senior Jenna Riehl found herself facing down three match points in the deciding flight – second singles. Riehl saved all three including another match point later in the game and forced a third set tiebreak. The St. Joseph native won the tiebreak 7-4 to give Kalamazoo a 5-4 victory over Hope in thrilling fashion.
"I am speechless," Kalamazoo Head Coach Mark Murphy said in a post-match interview. "There is no one else I would rather have in a huge match than Jenna [Riehl]."
Kalamazoo almost did not give Riehl the chance to win the match. The Hornets lost two of three doubles flights to put themselves in an early hole.
"We didn't play great in doubles," said Murphy. "Third doubles gave us a chance to win. We would not have come back from 3-0 down."
Hope's first doubles team of Nancy Benda and Carli Capestany won the matchup of ranked teams over Kalamazoo's team of Riehl and sophomore Sarah Woods 8-5. Coming into the match, Hope's duo was ranked No. 4 and Kalamazoo's No. 8 in the Central Region by itatennis.com.
Hope also won second doubles as Claire Cooper and Anna Garcia defeated senior Kelsey Moran and sophomore Olivia Bouchard 8-6.
Sophomore Ania Latala and freshman Sabrina Dass gave K's its lone doubles point defeating Paige Courts and Stephanie Huffman 8-6 at third doubles.
Woods, ranked No. 1 in the Central Region by itatennis.com, got her revenge on Benda winning first singles handily 6-0, 6-2. In the fall, Benda defeated Woods at the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Flighted Singles Tournament.
"Sarah [Woods] is one of the best players in the country," said Murphy. "It was critical that she tied the match quickly."
Hope won the next two matches that finished (third and fifth singles). Moran dropped her third singles match 6-2, 6-0 while Latala fell at fifth singles 7-6(5), 6-4.
Kalamazoo answered winning fourth and sixth singles after losing the first set in both flights. Dass defeated Courts 0-6, 6-3, 6-3 at fourth singles while Bouchard bested Garcia 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) at sixth singles.
That left Riehl's second singles match as the flight that would decide everything. Riehl won the first set 6-4 and was leading 3-0 in set two only to watch Cooper storm back to win six of the next seven games and take set two 6-4.
Riehl then battled through the aforementioned four match points against her to force the tiebreak she ultimately won.
The win over Hope, its first since 2007, gives Kalamazoo an 8-2 record on the season including a 3-0 mark in MIAA play. The Hornets will play again this weekend (April 5-6) against Kenyon and Denison.