Volume 118 >> Issue 52 : Friday, October 23, 1998

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Women's Tennis Edges Out Bates To Rebound From Loss to Smith

The women's tennis team played two matches last week, winning one and losing one. They travelled to Smith College on Saturday to face their conference rival, but lost 8­1. However, they rebounded on Tuesday to beat Bates College, a non-conference opponent, 5­4.

In doubles against Smith, MIT earned its lone point at the first position, where Mealani Nakamura '00 and Kelly Koskelin '02 prevailed 8­6. However, Smith proved to have excellent doubles teams as the second and third doubles teams of Jessica Hall '02 and Nisha Singh '00, and Yi-Ning Cheng '02 and Shikha Gupta '01 lost by scores of 8­1 and 8­0, respectively. The fourth and fifth doubles teams composed of Priscilla Cheung '02 and Lisa Dang '01, and Kosanna Poon '01 and Sarah Chalos '01 lost 8­1 and 8­4, respectively.

In singles play, the top two players suffered rare defeats in matches that could have gone either way. At first singles, Nakamura lost 7­5, 2­6, 1­6 and at second singles, Koskelin was beaten 6­1, 2­6, 2­6. Hall also lost a very competitive match at third singles, 3­6, 4­6. Singh fought well, but lost 4­6, 0­6 at fourth singles. Cheng lost 0­6, 0­6 at fifth singles, and Gupta was defeated 2­6, 2­6 at sixth singles.

Against Bates, the team got off to a much better start in doubles, taking an overall 3­0 lead before singles play. Due to gusty winds, all play was completed indoors. At first doubles, Nakamura and Koskelin won 8­2. The closest matches of the day were at second and third doubles, where a few points decided the overall match. Hall and Singh won 9­7, after trailing 7­4. Cheng and Gupta fought all the way to a tie-breaker, and prevailed, winning 9­8(7­5).

Due to Nakamura's illness, MIT shuffled their line-up, with each player competing at one position higher than normal. The results were mixed. Koskelin won 6­0, 6­1 at first singles, and Hall won 6­1, 6­0 at second singles, giving MIT the match. Singh lost 2­6, 2­6 at third singles, and Cheng lost 1­6, 1­6 at fourth singles. Gupta lost 4­6, 6­7(6­8) at fifth singles. Cheung played a terrific match at sixth singles but lost in a third set tie-breaker, 6­2, 4­6, 6­7.