South Hadley, Mass. - February 29, 2020 - The Mount Holyoke College tennis team battled hard against nationally-ranked Bates College at the MHC Field House on Saturday afternoon, but the Lyons fell to the Bobcats, 6-3.

With the loss, the Lyons are now 2-2 on the year, while Bates, which was ranked No. 27 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Rankings, improves to 3-2 following the victory.

Starting off with doubles, Haley Washington and Isabelle Rovinski knocked off Hannah Middleton (Pawcatuck, Conn.) and Shweta Kiran Cavale (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India), 8-2, before Ching-Ching Huang (Lukang Township, Taiwan) and Annissa Aamoum (Dulles, Va.) dropped an 8-4 decision to Anna Rozin and Suzanne Elfman at No. 1. Wrapping up doubles play, the duo of Catherine Peabody (San Francisco, Calif.) and Anya Gerasimova (Salem, Ore.) picked up a point for the Lyons with an 8-4 win over Lauren Hernandez and Hannah Sweeney.

Rozin overcame Gerasimova at No. 2, 6-0, 6-1, to give the Bobcats a 3-1 lead, before Peabody brought the Lyons back to within one with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Elfman at No. 3. Middleton fell at No. 6, 6-3, 6-4, to Joanna Atwater, before Huang delivered her second singles victory in as many weeks at the No. 1 spot for Mount Holyoke College, producing a 7-6(7-3), 6-1 win over Sweeney.

With the score at 4-3 Bobcats, the visitors picked up the final two victories in the 6-3 win as Rovinski defeated Kiran Cavale at No. 4 in a back-and-forth match which finished 6-7 (1-7), 6-2, 6-4 in favor of Rovinski, before Aaamoum fell to Hernandez at No. 5, 7-5, 4-6, 10-4.

Up next, Mount Holyoke College will travel to Connecticut College on Sunday, March 8. The match is slated for 10 a.m.

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