SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – Junior Katie Crowley (Reading, Mass.) and first year Han DK Le (Tra Vinh, Vietnam/Matignon HS (Mass.)) both advanced to the quarterfinals of the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament in the "D" draw this afternoon in South Hadley, Mass. The tournament is being co-hosted by Mount Holyoke College and Smith College.
The tournament has four 16-team brackets and each matchup features a doubles match and two singles matches with the winner being decided by a best two-out-of-three format.
The Sharks took on Mount Holyoke on its own campus in the "D" draw. Crowley (8-4 singles, 9-4 doubles) dropped the first set in singles play, 7-6 (7-5), to junior Michelle Cai (Hong Kong, China), but rebounded to win the second, 6-2, and the third and deciding frame, 10-5 in a super tie-breaker. Le (9-2 singles, 6-0 doubles) clinched the team victory for Simmons with a straight set, 6-0, 6-3, triumph over first year Katie Schumacher (Baldwinsville, N.Y.). The Sharks' duo downed the pair from Mount Holyoke in doubles action, 8-4, for a sweep to advance to the draw's quarterfinal round tomorrow vs. Nichols College at 11:00 a.m. in South Hadley on the campus of Smith. The win was also the 11th straight combined victory for Le, who has not lost a singles or doubles contest since September 10.
The Simmons tandem of sophomore Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) (6-8 singles, 7-4 doubles) and junior Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.) (12-3 singles, 5-5 doubles) was edged by Babson College's junior Tori Paolino (East Orleans, Mass.) and senior Alexis Ferraro (Coral Gables, Fla.). Babson won the first of three matches with an 8-2 doubles victory. The Beavers clinched the best of three when Paolino overcame a 6-1 first set loss to Reinhard by winning the second set, 6-3 and the third, 10-4. Cokely saved face for the Sharks when she came back from a 6-4 setback in the opening set to win the middle frame, 6-2, before taking the final set, 10-5 over Ferraro. The matches were also played in South Hadley, but on the campus of Smith. Babson moves on to play the winner of Amherst College and Brandeis College tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. on the campus of Smith. Reinhard and Cokely will also be in action again tomorrow taking on Mount Holyoke at 9:00 a.m. in the consolation round.
Simmons' other Draw "D" entrant of juniors Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) and Caroline Khoury (Portsmouth, Ohio) earned a bye as the draw's number one seeded duo and will take on Babson at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow.