By: Chris Behler

After three days of excellent play, the Xavier women’s tennis team’s run ended in a 4-0 loss to the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams, the only conference loss for the women this season.

The women’s first victory came against 15-seed St. Bonaventure, winning 4-0. Freshman Alex Brinker was one of the major contributors in both singles and doubles for the day. Brinker quickly won her singles match 6-1, 6-1, and took only 30 minutes with teammate Andrea Wolf to win 8-0 in their doubles match.

Head Coach Eric Toth was very happy with the speed of play in this first game.

“You want to win and get off the court quickly because it’s going to be a long weekend,” Toth said. “Winning four matches in four days is difficult and the quicker you can take care of business, the more it is going to help you later on. We played great and really set the tone in doubles and hopefully that helps us the rest of the weekend.”

The women went on to defeat the Fordham Rams 4-3, advancing to the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament. The match ended up coming down to Brinker. Brinker had only lost one singles match on the year and ended up padding her already impressive record with a three set win, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-5. In their third match, the Muskies beat No. 4 seed Massachusetts 4-0.

The next day the women were hit with their only conference loss of the season against the VCU Rams in the championship game of the tournament. Xavier had not played the Rams once this season.

Despite the tough loss, Toth and his team remain optimistic for the opportunity that the Big East will hold next season.

“I’m really sad to see this group of seniors go, but that being said, we have a great group of players coming back next year and I expect to be contending for a Big East championship,” Toth said.

The Musketeers completed their season with a 20-6 record overall and a 10-1 record in the A-10. This was their first A-10 title match since 2008.

The Xavier men will be competing in their tournament beginning this Friday in Mason, Ohio at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. The men have hopes for a seventh consecutive trip to the A-10 title match.