WINCHESTER, Mass. – Junior Katie Crowley (Reading, Mass.) and first year Han DK Le (Tra Vinh, Vietnam/Matignon HS (Mass.) were double winners to lead the top-seeded Simmons College women's tennis team to a 6-0 victory over fifth-seeded Anna Maria College this afternoon in the semifinals of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference championship tournament held at the Winchester Indoor Lawn Tennis Center in Winchester, Mass. The match was played to decision.
The Sharks advance to the GNAC title match for the 11th straight year and are seeking their seventh straight conference crown and 10th in the last 11 seasons. Simmons heads into the finals with a nine-match win streak and a 12-2 record and will take on the winner of number two seed Johnson & Wales University and number three Suffolk University. The AMCATS finish their season with a 5-9 mark.
Crowley (12-4 singles, 13-4 doubles) and Le (11-4 singles, 10-0 doubles) picked up the first point of the day for the Sharks, defeating the Anna Maria sophomore duo of Marrissa Leonard (Billerica, Mass.) and Jess Palmer (Sutton, Mass.), 8-0. The Sharks followed suit at first and second doubles as well with a pair of 8-0 pro-set victories. Sophomore Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) (7-8 singles, 10-4 doubles) combined with junior Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.) (13-3 singles, 8-5 doubles) to down the AMCATS pair of senior Nicole Goudreau (Harrisville, R.I.) and junior Katelyn Edelson (Berlin, Conn.) at first doubles. The Simmons junior pair of Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) (6-6 singles, 10-6 doubles) and Caroline Khoury (Portsmouth, Ohio) (6-4 singles, 7-5 doubles) gave their team a 3-0 lead with the victory over sophomore Callie Mulcahy (Charlton, Mass.) and first year Nicola Zamira (Mashpee, Mass.).
Le pushed the Sharks lead to 4-0 with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Leonard at fifth singles, before Crowley gave Simmons the deciding point of the match at number three singles with a 6-0, 6-1 triumph over Edelson. First year Mary Matthews (Wakefield, R.I.) (7-0 singles, 2-0 doubles) picked up the final point of the afternoon for the Sharks with a 6-0, 6-0 decision over Palmer.