'Cats Battle to Final Match in 4-3 Setback at Richmond

Saturday, February 1

Richmond, Va.

4:00 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

Richmond

'Cats Battle to Final Match in 4-3 Setback at Richmond

2/1/2020 9:50:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score DavidsonPhotos.com

Gavin McFarlin- Associate SID

RICHMOND, Va. — Playing its first Atlantic 10 match of the season, Davidson went down to the wire with the Richmond Spiders before falling in the final deciding singles match in dropping a 4-3 decision Saturday afternoon at the Country Club of Virginia.

Tied at 3-all in the match, it came down to the No. 5 singles position where Mira Gladstone was battling against Helene Heiberg of Richmond. Gladstone won the first set, 6-2, before Heiberg pulled out a 7-5 set in the second to send the match into a thrilling third set. Gladstone fell behind 3-0 before coming back to make it 5-3, but Heiberg broke her serve to get the 6-3 final-set win and give the Spiders the victory.

"We started off very nervous and slow in the doubles, and unfortunately, it lasted to long in a six-game set," said head coach Susanne Depka. "We did a great job getting fired up in the singles and fought extremely hard. Richmond didn't back down, played well under pressure and competed up to the last point. These matches are great learning experiences and will only help us as we get further into the season and at the conference tournament. Our team improved in many ways and I'm very grateful to be their coach!"

Of the six singles matches, four of them went to a third set, including matches won by Emma Heiderscheit and Josie Schaffer at No. 4 and 6, respectively. Heiderscheit won her third straight by overcoming a first-set tie-breaker loss, 7-4, with wins of 6-3 and 6-4 in the next two sets.

Schaffer then helped the Wildcats (1-3, 0-1 A-10) tie the match at 3-all after the 'Cats trailed 3-1 by picking up a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 win at No. 6. She evened her record at 2-2 on the year.

At No. 1 singles, Alexandra Abele blew past her Spider opponent by nailing down a 6-1, 6-2 victory for her second straight win.

Richmond (2-4, 1-0 A-10) opened the match by taking all three doubles positions with scores of 6-4, 6-1 and 6-1 to earn the first team point. It then won singles matches at No. 2 and 3 to go up 3-1.

Davidson takes some time off before returning to the courts with a Feb. 12 matchup at home against Kennesaw State. Match time set for 3 p.m.