Volume 118 >> Issue 49 : Tuesday, October 13, 1998

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MIT Tennis Earns Wins Against Brandeis and Clark

The women's tennis team played three matches this week. On Tuesday, they travelled to play Wellesley College in a match-up of two undefeated teams in the conference. Unfortunately, Wellesley prevailed 7­2. On Thursday, the team travelled to Brandeis University and returned home victorious, with a 7­2 win. And on Saturday, they played against Clark University.

In doubles against Wellesley, the first duo of Mealani Nakamura '00 and kelly Koskelin '02 suffered a rare defeat, losing 8­6. The other doubles teams did not fare as well as Wellesley proved to be a very deep team. The second doubles team of Jessica Hall '02 and Nisha Singh '00 lost 8­2. The third and fourth doubles teams, comprised of Yi-Ning Cheng '02 and Shikha Gupta '01, and Priscilla Cheung '02 and Lisa Dang '01 both fought hard, but both lost 8­3.

In singles, Nakaumra and Koskelin both earned victories at first and second singles. Nakamura won 7­5, 6­0, after trailing 5­3 in the first set, and Koskelin cruised, winning 6­2, 6­2. Hall was the last match to finish at third singles, losing 6­3, 7­5. The fourth, fifth, and sixth singles players had more trouble, as once again, Wellesley had a very strong team. Singh lost 6­0, 6­1 at fourth singles, Cheng lost 6­2, 6­3 at fifth singles, and Gupta lost 6­4, 6­2 at sixth singles, but not before aggravating her opponent with her hustle and scrappy play.

Against Brandeis, the team got off to a better start in doubles, winning two out of three. Nakamura and Koskelin won 8­2 at first doubles, but Hall and Singh lost 8­4 at the second position. Cheng and Gupta won a hard earned match 8­5 at third doubles, 8­5.

The team was confident going into singles play. Due to the rain, all matches were completed indoors. MIT claimed all the singles matches. Nakamura won 4­6, 6­2, 7­5 at first singles in a match that featured many lead changes but Nakamura simply out-toughed her opponent in the end. Koskelin once again won easily 6­2, 6­2 at second singles, while Hall was pushed to a first set tie-breaker, but prevailed, 7­6 (7­3), 6­2 at third singles. Singh split sets with her opponent at fourth singles, 2­6, 6­1, and played a tie-breaker to decide the third set and match. She won by a score of 7­0. At fifth and sixth singles, eight game pro-sets were played since the match had already been decided. Cheng lost 8­2 at fifth singles, but Gupta won 8­3 at sixth singles.

The team played their last home conference match of the season against Clark on Saturday. Due to inclement weather, play was forced inside.

In doubles action, it was a sweep for MIT. Nakamura and Koskelin won 8­2 at first doubles, while Hall and Singh prevailed 8­4 at second doubles. The third and fourth doubles teams won without dropping a game.

In singles, most matches were won pretty easily by MIT. Nakamura won at first singles in one of the more competitive matches of the day 6­4, 6­2. Koskelin and Hall breezed at second and third singles respectively, winning 6­0, 6­1 and 6­0, 6­0. Unfortunately, Singh lost at fourth singles 6­4, 6­1, preventing an MIT sweep. Cheng blanked her opponent at fifth singles 8­0 while Gupta downed her opponent 8­3. Cheung and Sarah Chalos '01 also won at seventh and eighth singles, by scores of 8­1 and 8­4.