SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – The Mount Holyoke College tennis team fought hard, but came up short against #33 Wellesley College in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action on Saturday. With the victory, the Blue improve to 12-7 overall and 6-2 in conference play, while the Lyons fall to 7-10 overall and 4-3 in NEWMAC play.
Wellesley opened up the day with an 8-1 win from #3 doubles, but MHC's sophomore Catherine Peabody (San Francisco, Calif./Lick-Wilmerding HS) and first year Anya Gerasimova (Salem, Ore./West Salem) knotted the match up at 1-1 on the #2 with an 8-3 victory. Wellesley's junior Justine Huang (Coto de Caza, Calif./Tesoro) and sophomore Selina Peng (Taichung, Taiwan/Morrison Academy) ended doubles play with a tough 9-7 triumph from #1 to take a 2-1 advantage.
First to finish in singles action was junior Sojin Ki (Irvine, Calif./Arnold O. Beckman), who defeated junior Madison Rosen (Portland, Ore./Grant) 6-0, 6-1, and first year Lily Chu (Princeton, N.J./Montgomery), who beat junior Clara Wang (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) 6-2, 6-1. With the momentum of a 4-1 lead, Wellesley's sophomore Korina Hernandez (Tampa, Fla./H.B. Plant) secured the match win with a challenging 6-3, 6-4 victory at #4 singles.
Action moved to #2 singles as senior Ishita Tibrewal (Kolkata, India/Modern High School for Girls) came from behind to earn a hard-fought victory over Blue's Peng. Tibrewal fell behind after dropping the first set, 6-2. She battled back in the second set with a 6-4 win, before earning a 10-4 victory in the match tie-breaker to earn a 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-4) win. At the top of the lineup, Wellesley's Huang also won in a three-set battle by a score of 6-3, 1-6, 1-0 (10-8), giving the Blue a 6-2 advantage. Closing the match was Peabody, who took down Kong, 6-3, 6-4 to finish the match with a score of 6-3.
Both teams close out the regular season on Tuesday as Mount Holyoke travels to Smith College and Wellesley hosts Emerson. Action is set to begin at 4:30pm for both teams.
