NORTHAMPTON, Mass – The Mount Holyoke College tennis team took down Smith College, 9-0 in the New England Women's and Men's Athletics Conference (NEWMAC) finale on Tuesday. With the victory, the Lyons end the regular season 8-10 overall and 5-3 in conference action, securing the fourth seed in the NEWMAC Championships. Smith College slips to 1-15 overall and 0-8 in conference play.
In doubles play, sophomore Catherine Peabody (San Francisco, Calif./Lick-Wilmerding HS) and first year Anya Gerasimova (Salem, Ore./West Salem) teamed up to defeat Smith's sophomores Joanna Kim (Chicago, Ill./Northside College Prep) and Emma Essenmacher (Delran, N.J./Delran), 8-2 to kick off the evening. On the #1 court, senior Ishita Tibrewal (Kolkata, India/Modern High School for Girls) and sophomore Ching-Ching Huang (Lukang Township, Taiwan/Taipei Municipal First Girls' HS) took out senior Samantha Peikes (West Hartford, Conn./Watkinson School) and sophomore June Lee (San Marino, Calif./San Marino), 8-2. The Lyons closed out the doubles sweep with a tough 8-5 win by juniors Madison Rosen (Portland, Ore./Grant) and junior Joy Maran (Santa Fe, N.M./Santa Fe Prep) over Pioneer sophomore Kara van Allen (Kalamazoo, Mich,./Mattawan) and first year Allison Ahern (Minneapolis, Minn./The Blake School)
Up 3-0, Gerasimova had a clean 6-0, 6-0 win over Essemacher, while junior Clara Wang (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) beat sophomore Paige Pryor (Fayetteville, N.C./South View), 6-1, 6-0 at #4 and #6 singles, respectively to go up 5-0 and cement the match victory. Mount Holyoke continued to dominate as Tibrewal defeated Ahern, 6-1, 6-1 at #2, followed by a 6-0, 6-0 win from Rosen over Kara Van Allen to extend the lead to 7-0. Huang cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 at the top of the lineup over Peikes, before Peabody ended the match with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Kim, giving the Lyons a 9-0 sweep.
Mount Holyoke is back in action as the #4 seed in the NEWMAC Quarterfinals on Saturday. The Lyons will host the #5 seed Wheaton College for the third consecutive year at 12:00pm.
