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Maryland tennis wrapped up its nightmarish season this weekend with road matches against the Purdue Boilermakers and Indiana Hoosiers. As has been custom this season, the Terps were blown out in both matches as they finished the regular season 3-18 with only one win in conference play.
Saturday: Purdue 4, Maryland 0
Maryland was down from the start, as the Terps quickly dropped the doubles point. Amber Policare and Arnelle Sullivan lost 6-1 while Saya Usui and Kate Yemelyanenka lost 6-3. Millie Stretton and Eva Alexandrova were up 4-3 when their match was stopped.
Yemelyanenka was the first to fall in singles play as she lost 6-2, 6-2. Sullivan was the next Terp to lose as she fell 6-4, 6-3. The match quickly became another Terps loss when Eva Alexandrova lost a three-set battle, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.
While the match was stopped at 4-0, Stretton was deep into a third-set battle, Usui was one point away from bringing her match to a third set and Zoe Kulkarni was tied in the third set of her match.
Sunday: Indiana 6, Maryland 1
The Terps traveled to Bloomington to face the Hoosiers on Easter Sunday as they looked to end a rough season on a high note, but after a strong start, this match went south as well.
In doubles play, which seemed to almost never go the Terps’ way this season, Maryland took two out the three matches to win the point. Sullivan and Policare dropped their match, but Alexandrova and Stretton won 6-4 to knot things up and bring all eyes to Usui and Yemelyanenka. The duo delivered an exciting tiebreak win to put the Terps up 1-0.
From there, though, things got ugly fast, as every Terp lost their singles match. Alexandrova fell 6-2, 6-1. Stretton fell 6-4, 6-1. Usui lost 6-0, 6-4. Kulkarni lost 6-3, 6-1. The only matches that were slightly competitive were Yemelyanenka’s and Sullivan’s, both of whom lost in three sets.
With the regular season concluding with these two matches, the Terps officially finished one of their worst seasons in school history on an 11-game losing streak and had only two wins at home and one win on the road. Sunday’s game marked the last in the careers of Millie Stretton and Arnelle Sullivan.