WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The William & Mary women's tennis team turned in a dominating performance in handing Dartmouth its first loss of the season, 6-1, on Saturday afternoon at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center. Senior Marie Faure, sophomore Lauren Goodman and freshman Natalia Perry each posted wins in singles and doubles, while juniors Ekaterina Stepanova and Maria Groener notched singles victories in the triumph. W&M improved to 4-5 on the year in downing a Big Green team that entered the match at 7-0 after back-to-back event titles, winning the ECAC Indoor Championship and the Courtside Classic in Minnesota.
 
The Green and Gold claimed the opening point of the match with wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles positions. After Dartmouth tallied a victory at the No. 2 post to take the early lead, the Tribe's top duo of Faure and Goodman answered with a win at the top spot. The W&M pair downed Taylor Ng and Kristina Mathis, 6-3, to improve to 3-2 at No. 1 and 6-5 overall. Junior Cecily Wuenscher and freshman Natalia Perry clinched the initial point of the match with a 6-4 victory over Allison McCann and Jacqueline Crawford at the No. 3 spot. The Tribe tandem won its second-straight match and first in dual-match play.
 
The Tribe quickly pushed its lead to 3-0 with a pair of strong performances at the bottom of the singles lineup. Perry dispatched of McCann, 6-1, 6-4, at No. 6 for her 13th win of the year. Junior Maria Groener picked up her second-straight impressive win, upending Racquel Lyn, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 5. Groener knocked off a nationally-ranked foe in the Tribe's match with N.C. State, before handing Lyn just her second loss of the season and first in dual-match competition. Groener evened her dual-match mark at 3-3 and tallied her seventh win overall, while Lyn fell to 13-2 on the year and 7-1 in duals.
 
Faure clinched the team triumph with a straight-sets win at the No. 2 position. The Tribe senior won her team-leading 14th match, downing Jacqueline Crawford, 6-3, 6-2. Crawford entered the match at 11-1 overall and 5-0 at No. 2 for the Big Green. Faure improved to 2-1 at No. 2 with her fourth dual-match victory.
 
Junior Ekaterina Stepanova and Goodman rounded out the Tribe's commanding win with victories at No. 1 and No. 3, respectively. Stepanova knocked off Dartmouth's Taylor Ng in a close straight-set match, 7-5, 7-6 (1). The Tribe junior pushed her season mark to 8-6 with her third victory at the No. 1 post. Ng, who spent time in the national rankings this season, is a three-time All-Ivy League selection and was the league's player of the year in 2015.
 
After dropping the first set in a tiebreaker at No. 3, Goodman rallied for a come-from-behind three-set win. Kristina Mathis won the opening set, 7-6 (4), before the Tribe sophomore bounced back with a 6-2 win in the second. In the third-set super tiebreaker, Goodman upended Mathis, 10-4, to even her season mark at 8-8. Goodman is a perfect 4-0 at the third singles position.
 
The Tribe returns to action when it travels to South Carolina for a pair of matches, Feb. 25-26. The Green and Gold squares off with CAA foe College of Charleston on Saturday, Feb. 25, at 10 a.m., before heading to No. 19 South Carolina on Sunday, Feb. 26, at noon.
 
William & Mary 6, Dartmouth 1
Singles
No. 1 – Ekaterina Stepanova (W&M) def. Taylor Ng (Dartmouth) – 7-5, 7-6 (1)
No. 2 – Marie Faure (W&M) def. Jacqueline Crawford (Dartmouth) – 6-3, 6-2
No. 3 – Lauren Goodman (W&M) def. Kristina Mathis (Dartmouth) – 6-7 (4), 6-2, 10-4
No. 4 – Julia Schroeder (Dartmouth) def. Olivia Thaler (W&M) – 5-7, 7-6 (4), 12-10
No. 5 – Maria Groener (W&M) def. Racquel Lyn (Dartmouth) – 6-2, 6-3
No. 6 – Natalia Perry (W&M) def. Allison McCann (Dartmouth) – 6-1, 6-4
Finishing Order: 6, 2, 5*, 4, 1, 2
 
Doubles
No. 1 – Faure/Goodman (W&M) def. Ng/Mathis (Dartmouth) – 6-3
No. 2 – Schroeder/Lyn (Dartmouth) def. Stepanova/Thaler (W&M) – 6-2
No. 3 – Perry/Wuenscher (W&M) def. McCann/Crawford (Dartmouth) – 6-4
Finishing Order: 2, 1, 3*