NEW YORK -- Columbia took down the No. 43 Memphis Tigers on Sunday morning at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center 4-3. Memphis held a 3-2 lead before the No. 36 Lions took the final two points to steal away the win.
The Lions jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, taking the No. 1 and 2 doubles matches. No. 28 Tina Jiang and Crystal Leung took down Alyssa Hibberd and Caroline Wegner in the No. 2 match 8-1. No. 17 Bianca Sanon and Kanika Vaidya clinched the doubles point shortly after, defeating Stefanie Mikesz and Anki Wind in the No. 1 match 8-4.
The Lions had a hard-fought singles competition. Vaidya extended the Lions lead with a straight-set win against Mikesz 6-1, 6-4. Ioana Alecsiu dropped a tough match at No. 6 to Hibberd 6-2, 6-2, giving the Tigers their first point of the day. At the No. 4 spot, Leung fought hard, but ultimately fell 6-4, 6-2, to Wind.
The last three singles matches all went three sets. Sanonâs No. 2 match was tight the whole way. Winning the first set 6-4, Sanon dropped the second set in a tiebreaker 6-7. She came back swinging in the third set to quickly finish it, 6-2.
Vivian Cheng and Jiang both fought to stay alive after dropping their first sets. Cheng won her second set 6-1 and went 6-6 tiebreaker for the third set, but fell in the tiebreaker. Jiang battled her way to a 7-5 win in the second set and toughed it out to win the match and clinch the win for the Lions with a 6-2 victory in the third.
