WINTRHOP Mass. – Simmons College women's tennis player Han DK Le (Tra Vinh, Vietnam/Matignon HS (Mass.)) was named the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Rookie of the Week, it was announced today by the league.
The honor marks the fifth time this season that a Simmons player has been named the conference's top weekly rookie. Le has garnered the award a league-high four times, including the weeks of September 1-7, September 15-21, October 6-12 and October 13-19. First year Mary Matthews (Wakefield, R.I.) was named by the league for the week of September 8-14 as well.
Le posted an 8-2 combined record, including a perfect 5-0 in doubles action for the week. The first year paired with junior Katie Crowley (Reading, Mass.) to defeat their Colby College opponents, Annie Morris and Olivia Stein, 8-3, in number three doubles on October 13 to begin the week. She came back the next day to blank Theresa Nelson of Emerson College, 6-0, 6-0 at number three singles. Le capped the week by playing eight combined matches in three days at the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament, co-hosted by Smith College and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass. on October 17-19. The tournament had four 16-team brackets and each matchup featured a doubles match and two singles matches with the winner being decided by a best two-out-of-three format.
A graduate of Matignon High School (Mass.), Le began the tournament's "D" draw with a 6-0, 6-3 victory in singles play over Katherine Schumacher of Mount Holyoke and teamed with Crowley to defeat Schumacher and Michelle Cai, 8-4, in the opening round on October 17. Le suffered her first match loss of either singles or doubles since September 10 when she was beaten in the quarterfinals by Daniela Saldarriaga of Nichols College, 6-2, 3-6, 10-5 on October 18. She rebounded with Crowley to defeat Saldarriaga and Ashley Dallaire, 8-4 in doubles play. Le dropped the first set in the semifinals to Stassy Furber of Wheaton College, 7-6, but won the next two frames, 7-5, 10-4 to give the Sharks a point. She later paired with Crowley to take down Furber and Caroline Stanclift, 8-3, in doubles. Despite a singles loss to Babson's Courtney Fischer, 6-1, 6-0, in the next day's finals, Le combined with Crowley to defeat Fischer and Ashland Stansbury, 8-4, to win the bracket championship.
Le has enjoyed a superior rookie campaign thus far, posting a 19-4 (.826) combined record, including a spotless 9-0 mark in doubles play. The Vietnam native began the season as the team's primary sixth singles player, but has moved up to the number five, four and three spots as well.
Simmons is currently 11-2 on the season, including a perfect 6-0 in GNAC play. The Sharks finished the conference slate without a loss for the seventh straight season and have won 52 straight regular-season league matches. They will be in action again on Saturday, October 25 as the number one seed in the GNAC tournament. Simmons will take on the winner of the first round match on October 22 between fifth-seeded Anna Maria College and number four seed Saint Joseph's College (Maine) at 2:00 p.m. at the Winchester Indoor Tennis Center in Winchester, Mass.