Just five days after receiving word that No. 1 player Stephanie Falconi '06 was out for the season with a knee injury, the 75th-ranked women's tennis team (5-3) was shut out by 65th-ranked Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Sunday.
The day produced few bright spots for the Bears, who saw their five-match winning streak snapped and their record against ranked opponents drop to 0-3.
The doubles team of Victoria Beck '04 and Kerry Meath '05 gave an impressive performance at No. 1, taking six games from Emily Hellberg and Nida Waseem before falling.
But the team of Alex Arlak '05 and Michelle Pautler '07 could not keep up with Allison Ashley and Morgan Landes, losing 8-2. Daisy Ames '07 and Amanda Saiontz '07 fell to Szilvia Szegedi and Lindsey Nash by the same score.
Although both doubles teams had been able to step up for injured players during Brown's recent five-match winning streak against unranked opponents, they could not continue their success against BC's confident doubles lineup.
Arlak said the loss came from a combination of Brown's poor play and an exceptional performance by BC.
"(BC has) been playing really well recently," she said.
Brown failed to win a set in the day's singles matches but did see strong play from both Meath and Ames. At No. 3 singles, Meath found her rhythm in the second set and was able to push Waseem to a tiebreaker before losing 6-2, 7-6 (4). Ames was leading 4-0 in the first set of her No. 6 match before it was called due to the Bears' mathematical elimination.
Stepping in at the No. 1 position, Arlak could take only three games from Szegedi, losing 6-1, 6-2. Ashley convincingly defeated Singer by a score of 6-0, 6-3 to take the No. 2 slot. Saiontz made it close but eventually fell to Landes in straight sets at the No. 4 position, losing 7-5, 6-3.
Beck said she was surprised by the lopsided outcome of Sunday's contest.
"I thought it would definitely be a close match. I thought we would've won a few singles matches," she said. "But they are a really good team, and we're obviously missing our No. 1 player."
Both Beck and Taylor said BC's recent string of competitive matches, including its defeat of 22nd-ranked Harvard University, left the team better prepared than Brown. The Bears had not faced a ranked opponent since the season's first two matches.
"I would like to play them again after we compete on our spring break," Taylor said. "I think with more competitive matches under our belt, this match would have been closer."
