Volume 118 >> Issue 21 : Friday, April 24, 1998

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Women's Tennis Faces Bruising Series at New England Showcase

On Saturday, the women's tennis team travelled to Wellesley College to participate in the New England Showcase. The tournament features the top six singles and top three doubles players from MIT, Wellesley, Middlebury, and Amherst. "It was a really tiring day. I can't ever remember having to play that much tennis without a substantial break," said Captain Nisha Singh '00.

Angela Mislowsky '99 and Ayako Tanaka '00 played first and second singles respectively. Mislowsky lost a tough three-setter to the top player from Wellesley, 3­6, 6­1, 2­6. Clearly drained, she then lost to the top player from Middlebury, 2­6, 1­6. Tanaka dropped a match 1­6, 2­6 to Middlebury's number two player before she lost a match to Wellesley's second singles player, 1­6, 1­6.

Doana Cecan '00 and Singh were involved in the flight of third and fourth singles. Cecan faced the second seed from Amherst and was defeated 1­6, 1­6 before losing to Wellesley's number three player, 2­6, 3­6. Singh ran into the top seed from Amherst in the first round and lost 0­6, 0­6. She played well against Middlebury's fourth singles player, but lost 6­7 (6­8), 2­6.

Shikha Gupta '01 and Jessica Yeh '01 played in the fifth and sixth singles flight. Gupta lost 0­6, 6­4, 6­7 (2­7) to a Wellesley player in a dramatic match. She then lost another heart-breaker to a Middlebury player, 6­7, 6­1, 6­7. Yeh drew the top seed from Amherst and lost 0­6, 0­6. Afterwards, she lost 3­6, 1­6 to a Middlebury player.

Mislowsky and Singh teamed together at first doubles. They lost to the Wellesley team 2­8, and to a pair from Middlebury, 5­8. The second match featured several close games which could have gone either way. Unfortunately, the MIT team was not able to capitalize as fatigue began to play a role. It was their fourth match of the day over a six hour period.

Tanaka and Cecan made up the second doubles team. They lost their first match to the Wellesley team, 1­8. However they bounced back to beat a talented Middlebury team, 8­6. The match was even at 4­4, but through sheer determination and will, the MIT team gained their first victory of the spring season.

Gupta and Yeh composed the third doubles team. They lost both of their matches to the teams from Middlebury and Wellesley, 2­8 and 0­8, respectively.

"We had several close matches that we just could not pull out. This tournament showed the team what we need to work on. This tournament gave us a lot to think about for the future," said head coach Carol Matsuzaki.