BEVERLY, Mass. - Sophomore Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) and junior Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.) were double winners to lead the Simmons College women's tennis team to a 6-3 victory over host Endicott College this afternoon on the South Campus Courts in Beverly, Mass. The Sharks improve to a school-record 16-3 on the season, while the Gulls fall to 13-4 in their final match of the season before heading to the NCAA Tournament.
Simmons took five of six singles matches to take a 5-1 lead and secure the victory.
Reinhard (10-10 singles, 13-6 doubles) came out on top in a grueling 6-4, 6-7 (9-11), 6-1 win at first singles over Amy Heacox (Marion, Mass.) to give the Sharks the fifth point of the match and capture their school-record victory. Cokely (17-4 singles, 11-7 doubles) won at second singles over Endicott's Natalie Egbert (Gorham, Maine), 6-4, 6-2 to give Simmons a 2-0 lead and capture her 43rd career singles triumph to place her second all-time on the school's career singles victory list. First year Han DK Le (Tra Vinh, Vietnam/Matignon HS (Mass.)) (15-5 singles, 13-1 doubles) scored a 6-2, 6-2 win at number six singles over the Gulls' Maxine Bergstein (Hingham, Mass.) for the first point of the day. Junior Katie Crowley (Reading, Mass.) (15-5 singles, 16-5 doubles) gave the Sharks a 3-0 lead following a 6-3, 6-2 fifth singles win over Jamie Zompa (Marlborough, Mass.). Endicott's Brittany Potter (Bedford, N.H.) registered the home team's lone singles victory with a 6-3, 6-4 showing over junior Caroline Khoury (Portsmouth, Ohio) (7-7 singles, 11-6 doubles) at number four. Junior Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) (7-10 singles, 14-7 doubles) was a winner for Simmons at third singles after dropping the first set to Mackenzie Rhodes (Rye, N.H.), 7-5, before bouncing back to take the next two frames, 6-3 and 6-1.
Reinhard and Cokely combined to take down the Gulls' pairing of Heacox and Egbert at number one doubles, 8-4. Zompa and Potter combined at number three doubles to hand Le her first loss in doubles play for the season and her first with Crowley as well on an 8-5 effort. Rhodes and Bergstein outlasted Khoury and Downey at number two doubles with a 9-8 (7-5) win for Endicott in the last match of the day.
The Sharks will be in action again tomorrow when they cross the river to take on Massachusetts Institute of Technolgy in Cambridge, Mass. at 1:00 p.m.
This was the final match of the season before
NCAA Tournament play for Endicott while Simmons has one remaining match at MIT this Saturday.