SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College tennis team met its closest competition of the year thus far as the Lyons entertained the Connecticut College Camels on Wednesday on the MHC Outdoor Tennis Courts, where the visiting Camels prevailed 5-4 in an evenly played match.

Mount Holyoke dropped to 2-3 with its second straight loss to a NESCAC opponent; the Camels (6-2) won their fifth straight match.

Connecticut College took a crucial 2-1 lead in doubles play, and the two teams split the singles matches at three wins apiece. The Camels' No. 1 doubles pair of Caitlin Cass and Ann Slopak downed Mount Holyoke sophomore Annika Chai (London, England) and first-year Jaskirat Kaur (Mohali, India) 8-3, and after that Sana Bhat and Kinley Yangden edged Mount Holyoke first-years Kate Vavra (Weston, Mass.) and Kennedy Bagley-Fortner (Montclair, N.J.) 8-5. The Lyons prevailed at No. 2 doubles to salvage a point, as senior captain Shweta Kiran Cavale (Chennai, India) and first-year Cal Smith (Bridgewater, Mass.) downed Courtney Banks and Lily Kerachsky in a tiebreaker, 8-7(5).

The Camels scored the first two singles points of the afternoon to assume a 4-1 lead, with Banks defeating Smith at fourth singles and Caroline Champa defeating Bagley-Fortner at sixth singles. The Camels later made it 5-2 and clinched the team victory with Cass's 6-3, 6-4 victory over Chai at No. 1 singles.

Mount Holyoke scored its singles points at the first, second and fifth spots. Kaur downed Bhat 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2 singles, Kiran defeated Banks 6-4, 6-4 at No. 3 singles, and Vavra pulled out a 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-8 victory over Elle Griffiths at the No. 5 spot.

Mount Holyoke will open NEWMAC play on Saturday with a 12pm match at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass.