PASADENA, Calif. — The No. 27 Caltech women's tennis team took on No. 17 Washington University in St. Louis on Tuesday in a late afternoon battle at home.

Tennis began just after 2:45 p.m. on doubles courts, where first-years Hannah Ramsperger (Zürich / Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich) and Anna Tanaka (Honolulu / IMG Academy) won four games against a strong doubles pairing who ranked tenth in the Div. III Central Region last November.

Court 3 saw senior Emily Zhang (Sharon, Mass. / Sharon) join forces with junior Payal Patel (Cumming, Ga. / South Forsyth), with the duo nabbing four games against their opposing pairing.

Payal put up an impressive performance in singles play as she battled a player ranked 13th in the Central Region last November. After dropping the first set 1-6, the Beaver stormed back in the set second, winning three straight games at 4-5 to take the 7-5 second set victory. The standout fought valiantly in the superset tiebreaker but fell 0-1 (4-10).

Ramsperger produced a strong fight in her second set after going down 0-3. The rookie broke her opponent and held on serve to get back to 2-3 before winning a critical game at 5-6 to force a tiebreaker, just narrowly getting beat at 6-8.

The squad will now focus on the Whitman College Blues, who come to Pasadena this Saturday, Mar. 16 for a 2 p.m. showdown. Cheer on the Beavers in person and follow the action online at gocaltech.com/coverage.

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