WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The No. 49-ranked William & Mary women's tennis team cruised to a 6-1 victory over CAA counterpart Delaware on Thursday afternoon at the Millie West Tennis Facility. The Tribe claimed the doubles point for the fourth-straight match and then controlled singles play by winning five of the six tilts with relative ease in straight sets. W&M evened its season ledger at 9-9, boasting a league mark of 3-1, while the Blue Hens fell to 8-6 overall and 1-2 in CAA competition.
 
The doubles point came down to a trio of tiebreakers with the Tribe posting victories at No. 2 and No. 3 to pull out the initial point of the match. At the second spot, the reigning CAA Doubles Team of the Week Ekaterina Stepanova and Olivia Thaler rallied for their fourth-straight victory. Delaware's Sarah Hall and Sara Komer jumped out to a 5-2 lead, before Tribe pairing ripped off four-straight games. The contest eventually went to a tiebreaker with the Blue Hen duo taking a 4-2 advantage. Stepanova and Thaler won five of the final six points in the breaker to claim a 7-6 (5) victory. They improved to 6-3 at the second doubles post. 
 
After Delaware won at No. 1, the match came down to a tiebreaker at No. 3. The Tribe pair of junior Cecily Wuenscher and freshman Natalia Perry rallied from a 5-3 deficit to eventually force the breaker against UD's Brooke Pilkington and Arielle Shuren. Tied at three following the first changeover, the Green and Gold team tallied four-straight points to secure the 7-6 (3) win. Wuenscher and Perry won their second straight and pushed their ledger to 5-2 at No. 3.
 
Perry continued her strong singles play, winning for the third-straight time at No. 3. The Tribe rookie rolled past Delaware graduate student Denny LaMachia, 6-1, 6-0. Perry extended her team-leading singles mark to 18-12, while upping the Tribe cushion to 2-0.
 
Thaler and sophomore Lauren Goodman only dropped four games apiece at the bottom two singles posts to secure the Green and Gold victory. Thaler made quick work of Amanda Studnicki, 6-1, 6-3, at No. 6 for her ninth win of the season. Goodman clinched the match with a dominating 6-2, 6-2 win over Sarah Hall at the fifth position. She won for the 11th time overall and the eighth in dual-match competition.
 
Freshman Rosie Cheng pushed her win-streak to eight straight with another victory at No. 4. She upended Delaware's Annie Jaskulski, 6-3, 6-4, to improve to 14-8 overall, including a team-best 10-3 in dual-match competition.
 
Senior Marie Faure rounded out the Tribe singles triumphs with an impressive tally at the No. 2 position. After winning the first set, 7-5, she bounced Sara Komer, 6-1, in the second. Komer entered the match at 13-0 in dual-match competition, playing at both the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. Faure picked up her 75th career singles win and jumped her team-best singles mark to 18-12.
 
The Green and Gold continues its homestand with a top-50 tussle against No. 47 Rice on Saturday morning. The match carries a noon start time at the Millie West Tennis Facility, weather permitting.
 
#49 William & Mary 6, Delaware 1
Singles
No. 1 – Brooke Pilkington (Delaware) def. Ekaterina Stepanova (W&M) – 7-6 (5), 6-4
No. 2 – Marie Faure (W&M) def. Sara Komer (Delaware) – 7-5, 6-1
No. 3 – Natalia Perry (W&M) def. Denny LaMachia (Delaware) – 6-1, 6-0
No. 4 – Rosie Cheng (W&M) def. Annie Jaskulski (Delaware) – 6-3, 6-4
No. 5 – Lauren Goodman (W&M) def. Sarah Hall (Delaware) – 6-2, 6-2
No. 6 – Olivia Thaler (W&M) def. Amanda Studnicki (Delaware) – 6-1, 6-3
Finishing Order: 3, 6, 5*, 2, 4, 1
 
Doubles
No. 1 – LaMachia/Studnicki (Delaware) def. Faure/Goodman (W&M) – 7-6 (3)
No. 2 – Stepanova/Thaler (W&M) def. Komer/Hall (Delaware) – 7-6 (5)
No. 3 – Perry/Wuenscher (W&M) def. Pilkington/Shuren (Delaware) – 7-6 (3)
Finishing Order: 2, 1, 3*