John Holton
Staff Writer

The Dons attended the WCC Championships this past weekend as the sixth-seeded team but their time in the tournament was short-lived as they fell in the first round to the third seed St. Mary’s by a score of 2-4. For Sofia Holmberg and Andrea Ka, it was their final game as Dons, both are seniors and will be graduating at the end of this semester.

The Dons started off the doubles portion on a sour note when the Dons duo of freshmen Hanna Börjeson and Shanna Dos Santos were defeated handily by the St. Mary’s pair of McCord and Pawid, 1-6. It was a tough start for USF but they were able to bounce back in the next matchup by a better margin than the one they had just been defeated by. Ka and junior Thyra Taune cruised to a perfect 6-0 victory over Clement and Crister from St. Mary’s. With this victory, the Dons were tied 1-1 for the doubles section heading into the final matchup of the doubles portion. It was all up to junior Genevieve McCloskey and freshman Alisha Sharma to bring it home for the Dons and the clinch the doubles, but the final St. Mary’s pair proved to be too much to overcome. They were defeated by Kaur and Manji by the closest result of the section, 3-6.

With the loss in the doubles section, the Dons moved onto singles hoping to make a comeback and move on in the tournament. First up for USF was McCloskey coming off her tough loss, sadly the result for her singles match would be much the same, losing in two straight sets of 6-1, 6-2. Next up was her doubles partner Sharma who put up a good fight but was defeated in almost identical fashion, 6-1, 6-3. The Dons stopped the bleeding there, with the next two matches being won by Ka and De Santos. Ka won hers in an easy two sets while De Santos played three for the win. It all came down to Borjeson, who needed to win her match against St. Mary’s Van Ross for the Dons to continue on to the sixth match of the singles portion. The first set went to Van Ross by a razor thin deficit of 7-6, and Borjeson snagged the second by a much more comfortable margin of 2-6. In the tie-breaking set, Van Ross goes the upper hand early and secured the Gaels’ victory with a 6-1 win. Taune was also playing a match against Powell but it did not finish as a result of Börjeson’s loss.

This loss brings to an end the Dons’ season. They will return next year to once again compete for the WCC title.

Photo courtesy of Dons Athletics