CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Despite outstanding efforts from the first and second doubles teams, Mount Holyoke College was unable to get past the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the semifinals of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's tennis tournament. MIT, which is the top-seed, moves to 9-0 on the season and advances to tomorrow's conference final.

The Lyons, who were the fourth-seed in the tournament, concludes its fall season with an 8-4 mark. It was the seventh time in program history that MHC advanced to the NEWMAC semifinals.

MIT opened the match with a sweep in doubles, but the Engineers saw a lot of fight from the Lyons in two flights. After MIT junior Sonya Das (Arden Hills, Minn.) and first year Sharlene Song (Arcadia, Calif.) posted an 8-0 win over MHC senior captain Amy Chen (Hilo, Hawaii) and sophomore Clara Wang (Madison, Conn.) from the third flight, the second doubles took the stage.

First year Serena Le (Aiea, Hawaii) and junior Rena Liu (Oak Hill, Va.) squared-off against Lyons' senior captain Alexa Colas (Teaneck, N.J.) and first year Catherine Peabody (San Francisco, Calif.). It was a tight battle that saw the Engineers grab an 8-6 vicotry to put the home team up 2-0. In the first flight, MIT junior Kelly Zhu (Pearland, Texas) and first year Lara Rakocevic (Portland, Ore.) prevailed in another tight 8-6 win against MHC sophomore Ayame Yazawa (Tokyo, Japan) and first year Ching-Ching Huang (Lukang Township, Taiwan).  

In singles play Le put MIT one point away from the match victory with a 6-0, 6-1 win in the fourth flight over Peabody. Rakocevic then put the match in the win column for the Engineers, scoring a 6-0, 6-1 win at two over Huang.

MIT moves on to the finals of the tournament, which the Engineers are hosting, tomorrow with the action beginning on the DuPont Tennis Courts at 1:00 p.m.