Volume 117 >> Issue 44 : Tuesday, September 23, 1997

PDF of This Issue

Women's Tennis Off To a Strong Season

Last Friday, the women's tennis team opened their conference season with an 8­1 victory against Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester.

MIT captured two of the three doubles matches. Michelle Youn '00 and Mealani Nakamura '00 won 8­2 at first doubles. Nora Humphrey '98 and Hannah Kwon '00 cruised at second doubles, winning 8­0. The lone WPI point came at third doubles, where Tiffany Cunninghman '98 and team co-captain Nisha Singh '00 lost an extremely hard-fought match, 9­8 (7­5).

MIT then dominated all six singles matches. Both Youn and Nakamura won without dropping a game, 6­0, 6­0, at first and second singles, respectively. Humphrey won 6­0, 6­1 at third singles, while Kwon was a 6­2, 6­2 victor at fourth singles. Cunningham prevailed 6­4, 6­3 at fifth singles, and co-captain Susan Lin '98, triumphed 6­1, 6­0 at sixth singles.

"It was our first NEW 8 conference match, and I think we really picked it up after a tough loss at Tufts on Sunday," said head coach Merrilee Keller.

"I thought we played well as a team, and I was very pleased with the results," Lin said.

Team defeated by Tufts

Last Tuesday, the team played a tough first match against Tufts University, losing 9­0 in their season opener.

The match began with 8-game proset doubles play. At first doubles, Youn and Nakamura played an extremely close and tense match, losing 9­7. At second doubles, Kwon and Lin fought hard in another tough match, losing 8­2. At third doubles, Singh and Lauren Germaine '01 suffered a 8­1 loss.

At first singles, Youn played a tough first set, losing in a tie-break. She fought to maintain her momentum after the lengthy first set, but lost with a final score of 7­6, 6­3.

At second singles, Nakamura played a tough three-setter. She started out strong, taking the first six games to easily win the first set 6­0, but lost the second set in a tie-break. Her Tufts opponent took the third and final set, 6­0.

As MIT's third singles player, Kwan lost in two sets, 6­3, 6­3 while Lin, at fourth singles, lost 6­0, 6­0. At fifth and sixth singles, Singh and Germaine both suffered losses of 6­2, 6­1 and 6­0, 6­0; respectively.

The team's first home match is against Wheaton College on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.