The women's tennis team opened the spring season Friday night when they hosted Towson at International Country Club. The Patriots battled but the Tigers came out on top handing Mason a 6-1 defeat.

Towson opened the scoring by winning the doubles point. Mason's  No. 1 team of Brittany Pilkington and Sydney Green started slowly but failed to mount a full comeback falling 6-2 to the Towson duo of Nicole Shakhnarova and Barbora Vasilkova. Marijke Boers and Morgan Yang, playing at #2, pulled the doubles even when they defeated Lucy Williams and Lucy Gloninger. At #3 Mason's pairing of Esu Erdenebat and Olivia Lacy-Thompson played a very tight match with Sophie Lesage and Renate van Oorschodt. Erdenebat/Lacy-Thompson went up 5-4 and had a couple of opportunities to close out the set but the Towson team was able to close out the last three games to secure the doubles point for the Tigers.

The singles matches began with the top four going on first. Playing in the top singles spot, Pilkington fell behind early but then played even in the second set before falling in a tie-breaker to Williams to put Towson up 2-0. Yang put Mason on the scoreboard with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Gomer. Green, playing the second singles position, played a very long first set before falling to Vasilkova.

With Mason down 1-3, Boers played the longest match of the evening before falling to Lesage 4-6, 6-7 which secured the win for Towson. Towson was able to close out the final two points as Lacy-Thompson and Erdenebat both fell to their Towson opponents.

"I was pleased with our fight tonight", commented Coach Stephen Curtis. "We played a very solid Towson team tough despite our limited practice time due to the blizzard."

Mason is back in action on Sunday afternoon as they host Mount St. Mary's at 4:45pm at the Springfield Golf & Country Club.

Mason 1, Towson 6

Doubles

1)    Shakhnazarova/Vasilkova (Towson) def. Pilkington/Green (Mason), 6-2

2)    Boers/Yang (Mason) def. Williams/Gloninger (Towson), 6-3

3)    Van Oorschodt/Lesage (Towson) def. Erdenebat/Lacy-Thompson (Mason), 5-7

Singles

1)    Lucy Williams (Towson) def. Brittany Pilkington (Mason), 6-0, 7-6

2)    Barbora Vasilkova (Towson) def. Sydney Green (Mason), 7-6, 6-2

3)    Sophie Lesage (Towson) def. Marijke Boers (Mason), 6-4, 7-6

4)    Morgan Yang (Mason) def. A.J. Gomer (Towson), 6-4, 6-4

5)    Renate van Oorschodt (Towson) def. Olivia Lacy-Thompson (Mason), 6-3, 6-1

6)    Lucy Gloninger (Towson) def. Esu Erdenebat (Mason), 6-2, 6-3

Order of finish: Doubles 1, 2, 3; Singles 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6