BOSTON, Mass. – Powered by a singles sweep from the Mount Holyoke College tennis team, the visiting Lyons defeated Emerson College, 8-1 in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action. Mount Holyoke, which has now won its conference opener in each of the last three seasons, improves to 4-7 and is 1-0 in conference play. The homestanding Lions slip to 3-8 on the season and are now 0-2 in the NEWMAC.

Opening up with a doubles victory was sophomore Catherine Peabody (San Francisco, Calif./Lick-Wilmerding HS) and first year Anya Gerasimova (Salem, Ore./West Salem), who had a strong 8-0 win at two. In third doubles, Emerson's Mackenzie Swaney (Old Lyme, Conn./Old Lyme) and Cassia Burns (Tewksbury, Mass./Tewksbury) evened the score with an 8-5 victory, but sophomore Ching-Ching Huang (Lukand Township, Taiwan/Taipei Municipal First) and senior Ishita Tibrewal (Kolkata, India/Modern High School for Girls) grabbed the lead back with an 8-6 win to head into singles action up 2-1.

The Lyons had an excellent day in singles play beginning with a 6-2, 6-0 win from junior Madison Rosen (Portland, Ore./Grant) from the fifth spot. Pushing the lead to 4-1 was Huang at the top of the lineup, who defeated Lions sophomore Alisha Parikh (Los Altos, Calif./Homestead), 6-0, 6-2. Tibrewal sealed the match from second singles with a 6-1, 6-2 victory, pushing the lead to 5-1. Peabody then continued momentum from three with a 6-1, 6-3 victory, before Gerasimova and junior Joy Maran (Santa Fe, N.M./Santa Fe Prep) finished the match with 6-0, 6-4 and 6-0, 6-0 wins at four and six, respectively.

Mount Holyoke will return home on Tuesday to continue conference against Wheaton College at 4:30pm. Emerson will also be at home on Tuesday, facing MIT at 4:00pm.