Williamsburg, KY - The start of the new week of action proved to be the one that Patriots wanted to get off to as they notched their seventh straight and fourth straight sweep over the Knights. Cumberlands hosted Marian for their final home match of the season Wednesday afternoon with the Patriots able to grab yet another convincing win. UC outdid their counterpart throughout the performance on their way to their 18th win of the year in the 7-0 victory.
Meiri Okuwaki and Tessa Gray continue to shine in doubles play with the team's #2 tandem winning their 10th straight bout. The Patriot duo has had as strong a campaign as anyone as they've played their way to team-best 18-3 mark. Their most recent win, like so many others, came in a dominating performance that saw Tessa and Meiri grab the 6-1 win. Tomomi Nagao and Johanna followed suit with a win of their own to give UC their first point of the contest, winning 6-3 while Satsuki Mitani and Mikaela Fros finished things off on a high note with a 6-2 defeat of Marian's #3.
Nagao made it a 2-0 advantage for the Patriots whenever singles play began with her win at the top spot. Tomomi had little trouble with her Knight counterpart as she allowed only three points during the match. The native of Japan won the first set 6-3 before settling in and taking complete control on her way to a score of 6-0 in the second stanza to give Nagao her 19th singles win on the season for a new career-best, surpassing her total of 18 wins during the 2020-21 season.
Johanna Beckmann was next to reach a conclusion during singles out of the #3 spot. Beckmann had a real fight on her hands in the form of Laura Kuebler with her Marian opponent battling her the whole way. Beckmann managed to grab the win, though, pulling out the 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 win to make it a 3-0 lead for the Patriots. Okuwaki then clinched the win for UC as the Patriot's #2 with her own hard fought win. After edging out Teodora Simon in the first set 7-5, Meiri had a much easier time in the second on her way to a 6-2 victory, making it a 4-0 tally in favor of Cumberlands.
Despite already having the win in hand, UC did not slow down one bit going into the back half of their lineup. If anything, the team played better down the stretch with Hana Shimeno, Fan Shiau, and Satsuki Mitani all getting dominant wins. Shimeno was the first to finish of the three at #4 with her winning 6-1, 6-3 for her sixth consecutive win, moving her to 16-4 on the year.
Shiau put together the strongest effort of anyone on the the day as she did not allow a point to be scored by her Marian opponent, winning 6-0, 6-0 out of the #5 spot. Fan has been playing some of her best tennis of late as she currently holds a seven-match win streak with her outpacing her competition 77-7 during that time. The native of Taiwan has been the personification of dominance recently with her giving up only one point in her past four matches combined.
Satsuki Mitani put a bow on this one with a conniving win of her own as UC's #6 with her getting the 6-1, 6-0 win. This was just Mitani's fourth match playing solo this season and she has looked superb in each, winning all four. Satsuki has in quick order gotten used to defeating the opposition handedly with three of her four contests coming to a conclusion with her conceding just one point.
The Patriots are now18-5 on the season and 8-1 in conference play with their winning streak now moving out to seven. They'll look to make it eight straight on Friday in their regular season finale when they take on the Georgetown Tigers. UC will be on the road for that one with things set to begin at 1:00 p.m.
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