CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Simmons College women's tennis team had four double winners lead it in an 8-1 dual match victory over visiting Colby College this afternoon at Harvard University's Beren Tennis in Cambridge, Mass. The Sharks win their seventh straight match to improve to 10-2 on the season, while the Mules fall to 3-2.
The Simmons duo of Katie Crowley (Reading, Mass.) (6-4 singles, 8-4 doubles) and Han DK Le (Tra Vinh, Vietnam) (7-2 singles, 5-0 doubles) earned an 8-3 decision over sophomore Annie Morris (Wilmette, Ill.) and first year Olivia Stein (Wellesley Hills, Mass.) at number three doubles, before the Sharks junior tandem of Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) (5-6 singles, 8-5 doubles) and Caroline Khoury (Portsmouth, Ohio) (6-3 singles, 5-4 doubles) downed junior Meg Giblin (Westborough, Mass.) and senior Danielle Levine (Andover, N.J.) by the same score at second doubles. The Simmons number one doubles team of sophomore Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) (6-7 singles, 7-3 doubles) and junior Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.) (10-3 singles, 5-4 doubles) came back from a 4-1 deficit to win seven straight games to defeat first year Jamie Au (Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong) and senior Erica Talamo (Newton, Mass.), 8-4, to give the home team a 3-0 lead after doubles play.
Cokely notched the first singles victory of the day for the Sharks with a 6-0, 6-0 showing over Au at number two singles, while sophomore Cathy Baker (Simsbury, Conn.) (5-0 singles, 6-1 doubles) topped Stein, 6-0, 6-3, at number six to remain perfect in singles play for the season and clinch the match for Simmons with the fifth point of the day.
Colby won its only match of the contest when Giblin won in straight sets over Crowley, 6-3, 6-4 at fifth singles.
The Sharks won the final three singles tilts of the day. Khoury won in straight sets over Morris at fourth singles, 6-0, 6-4 and Reinhard dispatched of Talamo at first singles for Simmons, 6-3, 6-4. Downey dropped the first set, 6-1, to Levine at third singles, but tied the match with a 6-1 second set decision. She was tied in the final set, 6-6, before fighting off four match points to win the third set for the Sharks, 7-6 (7-4).
Simmons returns to the courts tomorrow when it hosts Emerson College at 3:30 p.m.