UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio - The Otterbein women's tennis team dropped its first conference match of the season, as the reigning Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Champions John Carroll won 7-2. The Cardinals fall to 12-3 on the year and 3-1 in the league, while the Blue Streaks improve to 11-4 overall and 6-0 in the conference. 

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• Otterbein came away with one victory in the doubles portion, as Madison Mueller and Kristen Zink earned an 8-7 win. Marriella Briones and Jordyn Traxler battled back-and-forth in second doubles and lost 8-7, 7-5 in the tiebreak to Sky Harwood and Megan Reese. 
• Sydney Bergman had the challenge of facing off against Lauren O'Malley, who won the ITA Central Regional Championship in the fall. In the third singles position, Briones dropped her first set 6-1 and battled in the second set but lost 6-4. 
• Mueller earned the only Cardinal victory in singles play by winning 2-6, 7-5, 1-0 with a 13-11 win in the third set tiebreaker. 

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:

• This was the first Cardinal loss in over one month of action, as the last Otterbein defeat came against division II opponent University of Mary. The last division III foe to best the Cardinals was Oberlin over two months ago. 
• Mueller is now 9-2 on the year and has won her previous five matches from the fifth singles slot. The freshman was down 5-0 in the second set before coming back and winning 7-5. 
• The Cardinals suffered a tough loss against John Carroll who has won 35-straight matches, as four of the possible nine points went into a tiebreaker set. 

UP NEXT:
The Cardinals will look to bounce back tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. against Capital, as Otterbein swept the Crusaders, 5-0, last season.