PASADENA, Calif. – The Beavers' first match since February 22 was worth the wait as Caltech Women's Tennis took to the courts and left with a statement win over national No. 33 Vassar College.

"I'm really proud of how we refocused after all the rain delays," Head Coach Benay Weintraub said of the canceled match against Washington and Lee University last week. "We came out energized and excited. We competed with grit and kept our foot on the gas."

Flying out of the gates, the senior duo of Athena Kolli (Buffalo Grove, Ill. / Adlai E. Stevenson) and Emily Zhang (Sharon, Mass. / Sharon) picked up the first match point of the day with an 8-3 win in Doubles #3. Minutes later, juniors Yoyo Benchetrit (Toronto / St. Clements) and Anika Arora (Fremont, Calif. / Mission San Jose) won on Court 2 with an 8-5 score.

Meanwhile, Doubles #1 was locked in a tight battle with first-years Hannah Ramsperger (Zürich / Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich) and Anna Tanaka (Honolulu / IMG Academy) against the visiting Brewers' top pairing. Neither side could gain more than a one-game lead until Vassar pulled ahead 7-5. Undeterred, Hannah and Anna responded with two wins of their own to force a seven-point tiebreak, which they won by a comfortable 7-4 margin to seal the doubles sweep for Caltech.

"With all the rain we have been getting, it's been tough missing out on a lot of our early matches, so it was great to get our first win of the season today," said Kolli after the team victory. "Getting the doubles sweep was an awesome start to the match, and the team carried that momentum into singles super well."

Needing just two more match points to clinch, Caltech took care of business in just over an hour as Arora raced to victory in #3 Singles with matching 6-2 sets. Tanaka finished the job on Court 6 with a 6-3, 6-1 triumph for the deciding point.

Benchetrit cruised to another singles win on Court 2, prevailing 6-2, 6-1, and junior Payal Patel (Cumming, Ga. / South Forsyth) held on for a 6-1, 7-5 win in #5 Singles.

"This team, individually and collectively, has grown in so many ways," Coach Weintraub said. "I look forward to seeing what they'll accomplish next."

Next up for Caltech is the University of Mary Washington (Fredricksburg, Va.), once again on the Caltech Tennis Courts on Thursday, Mar. 7 at 3 p.m.

Links:
Caltech Women's Tennis on Instagram
Caltech Women's Tennis on X, formerly Twitter
Live video of home matches: https://gocaltech.com/tennislive
Live scores: https://gocaltech.com/tennisscores (Free, signup with iOnCourt required)