South Hadley, Mass. - October 14, 2019 - The Mount Holyoke College tennis team hosted the 2019 New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament (NEWITT) along with Smith College this weekend, a tournament that lasted three days in both South Hadley and Northampton, Mass. at Smith College.
In the A Draw was Ching-Ching Huang (Lukang Township, Taiwan) and Annissa Aamoum (Dulles, Va.), while Anya Gerasimova (Salem, Ore.) and Catherine Peabody (San Francisco, Calif.) were in the B Draw. First-year Shweta Kiran Cavale (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India) and Hannah Middleton (Pawcatuck, Conn.) competed in the C Draw, while Susan Li (Irvine, Calif.), Nikki Cheng (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Chisato Kimura (Lawrence, Kan.) all competed in the D Draw.
During the NEWITT, Peabody was announced as the recipient of the Lynn Miller Warrior Award, which is given to the student-athlete that has either junior or senior status, and embodies competitiveness playing sport while competing at the highest level of integrity. Lynn Miller is a former Wheaton College tennis coach of 35 years and was one of three New England-based recipients to be inducted into the tennis U.S. Professional Teaching Association Hall of Fame in 2018.
Kicking off action in the opening round of the A Draw, Huang took on Jackie Buzkin from Amherst College and fell 6-0, 6-0. Next was Aamoum, who squared off with Claire Evans from Amherst College and fell 6-0, 6-2. In the doubles competition, the Mammoths won 8-0. In the consolation quarterfinals, Huang and Aamoum fell to Maddie Suk and Caroline Garrido of Tufts, 8-0, in the doubles competition and then Suk defeated Huang 6-1, 6-0 in the first singles match, while Aamoum dropped a 6-0, 6-0 decision to Garrido to see their tournament come to a close.
In the B Draw, Gerasimova and Peabody took on Lara Rakocevic and Ashley Teng of MIT and fell in the doubles competition, 8-7 following a 7-3 tiebreaker, before Rakocevic knocked off Gerasimova 6-1, 6-1, while Teng defeated Peabody 6-0, 6-2. In the consolation semifinals, The duo fell to Ana Hatfield and Isabel Cepada from Brandeis, 8-3 in the doubles competition, before Hatfield overcame Gerasimova with a 6-1, 6-0 result, but Peabody was able to rally past Cepada 7-5, 6-3.
Next, in the C Draw, Kiran Cavale and Middleton took on Rachel Ahlmeyer and Veronica Fulgieri and fell 8-3 in doubles, before Fulgieri beat Kiran Cavale, 6-4, 6-2, while Middleton edged Ahlmeyer, 2-6, 6-4 (12-10). Kiran Cavale and Middleton bested Krista Jiranek and Federica Christofanilli, 8-6, in the consolation semifinals to advance to a match versus Endicott for the consolation championship, but the Gulls defaulted from the tournament, making Kiran Cavale and Middleton consolation champions.
The D Draw saw Cheng and Kimura fall to Grace Wang from Brandeis and Fernicola from Wheaton, 8-3, before Li defeated Fernicola 6-3, 6-2, while Cheng knocked off Wang, 6-1, 6-0. The trio would then fall to Endicott in the semifinals to see their tournament come to a close.
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