ORANGE, CA (March 13, 2008) -- Playing its fourth nationally ranked team in as many days, Vassar's women's tennis team downed No. 16 ranked Chapman University 6-3 in a match that lasted almost five hours. This was the Vassar team's third win over a nationally ranked opponent this week. The Brewers, ranked No. 24, improve their record to 5-1 this spring and on the California trip have defeated No. 22 Kenyon, No. 25 NAIA ranked Westmont and lost to No. 8 ranked Pomona.

Vassar has a well-deserved "day off" on Friday and concludes its California trip with a match on Saturday morning against Colorado College at the Balboa Bay Racket Club in Newport Beach, CA at 9:30 am.

While the Chapman match was Vassar's fourth match in four days, the team looked fresh and was eager to play.

At first doubles the Vassar pair of Kliman and Romita lost a close match against strong opponents, 8-5. The match showcased attacking doubles from both teams with aggressive, short points won at the net.

Vassar's Pontee and Steele controlled the #2 doubles match winning by an 8-2 margin and at #3 doubles Barnett and Burks won 8-6 to give Vassar a 2-1 lead going into the singles.

In exhibition doubles Jacobson and Anderson played consistently to win 8-0.

In singles play, Nicole Pontee lost 6-4, 6-4 at #1 in an extremely competitive match that featured punishing groundstrokes, aggressive net play from Nicole and pinpoint passing shots from the Chapman player.

Next, #3 Kliman and #4 Romita tallied the third and fourth team points for Vassar with 6-3, 6-3 and 6-0, 6-1 scores respectively. Kliman hit deep, consistent ground strokes in her match and Romita put together smart combinations of shots to end most of her points at the net. Jacobson, #5 singles, and Burks, #6 singles, captured their matches decisively giving up only one game in the two matches. Jacobson won 6-1, 6-0 and Burks won 6-0, 6-0. Jacobson is 6-0 this year (studied abroad in the fall), and Burks is 13-0 this year.

Kelly Barnett's #2 singles match lasted three hours and 15 minutes and was the last match to finish. Barnett battled the entire match losing the first set 4-6 and winning the second set 6-1. In the third set each player held the lead at different times. The Chapman player established a commanding 3-0 lead with Barnett winning the next four games to lead 4-3. It was tied at 4-4 and 5-5 with Barnett going up 6-5 but Chapman evened the set again at 6-6. In the tiebreak Barnett led 3-0, 4-1, 5-2 but in the end Chapman won the tiebreak 10-8 to clinch the match.

In exhibition singles Steele won decisively 8-0, and Caroline Dunn-Rankin tallied her third singles win in three days winning 8-6. Her only loss this trip is a 9-8 loss to her Kenyon opponent in the first match.

Vassar 6, Champman 3

Singles
1. L. Lewis, Chapman d. Nicole Pontee, Vassar, 6-4, 6-4
2. Kelly Fox, Chapman d. Kelly Barnett, Vassar, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(8)
3. Elysa Kliman, Vassar d. S. Trippel, Chapman, 6-3, 6-3
4. Krista Romita, Vassar d. Roxanne Kaiden, Chapman, 6-0, 6-1
5. Alexis Jacobson, Vassar. d. Sandra Ezekiel, Chapman, 6-1, 6-0
6. Courtney Burks, Vassar d. Laura Robinson, Chapman, 6-0, 6-0

Exhibition
7. Jamie Steele, Vassar d. Melissa Gohl, Chapman, 8-0
8. Caroline Dunn-Rankin, Vassar d. Gilanie Bayoneta, Chapman, 8-6

Doubles
1. Lewis/Fox, Chapman d. Kliman/Romita, Vassar, 8-5
2. Pontee/Steele, Vassar d. Kaiden/Robinson, Chapman, 8-2
3. Barnett/Burks, Vassar d. Ezekiel/Trippel, Chapman, 8-6

Exhibition
4. Jacobson/Elizabeth Anderson, Vassar d. Gohl/Bayoneta, Chapman, 8-0