CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Senior Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.) won in doubles play and singles play and became the Simmons College women's tennis program's all-time leader in singles wins in a 7-2 loss to visiting Mount Holyoke College this afternoon in a dual match played at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. The Lyons improve to 3-0 on the season, while the Sharks fall to 1-2.
Cokely (3-0 singles, 3-0 doubles) won the first set, 6-3, for Simmons at second singles, vs. previously unbeaten Mount Holyoke senior Margaux Holloschutz (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) and took the second set, 6-1, when Holloschutz' return went into the net. The singles victory was the 47th of Cokely's career, moving her past Kendra Currier (2004-08) for the top spot in school history. The win pulled the Sharks to within 4-2, but they were unable to move any closer for the rest of he afternoon.
Cokely combined with junior Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) (2-1 singles, 3-0 doubles) earlier in the match to earn an 8-2 victory at first doubles over Holloschutz and first year Ayame Yazawa (Tokyo, Japan) to give the home team a 1-0 edge. The Lyons came back to win the next two doubles matches to take a 2-1 edge going into singles play.
Junior Amy Chen (Hilo, Hawaii) combined with first year Madison Rosen (Portland, Ore) to defeat the Simmons pair of senior Katie Crowley (Reading, Mass.) (1-2 singles, 1-2 doubles) and sophomore Mary Matthews (Wakefield, R.I.) (1-2 doubles) at number three doubles, 8-4. Junior Alex Colas (Teaneck, N.J.) and sophomore Ishita Tibrewal (Kolkata, India) paired up at number two doubles for Mount Holyoke to down senior Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) (1-2 singles, 1-2 doubles) and Amy Chen's younger sister, first year Ashley Chen (Hilo, Hawaii) (1-2 singles, 1-2 doubles), 8-6.
Tibrewal gave the Lyons a 3-1 lead with a 7-5, 6-1, win at third singles over Crowley, before senior Michelle Cai (Hong Kong, China) defeated Sharks' sophomore Lilly Blumkin (Del Mar, Calif.), 6-1, 6-0, at sixth singles.
Yazawa remained undefeated in singles play, taking down Reinhard at the number one spot, 7-5, 6-2, for Mount Holyoke. Colas followed with a three-set victory over Downey for the Lyons. She won the first set, 6-3, before Downey battled back to take the second frame, 7-5, but Colas recovered to win the deciding set, 10-6 in a tiebreaker. First year Clara Wang (Madison, Conn.) closed out the three-hour and 52-minute dual match with a grueling, 7-5, 7-5, victory over Ashley Chen at fifth singles to give the visitors a 7-2 win.
Simmons returns to the courts on Wednesday, September 9 when it travels to Babson Park, Mass. to take on Babson College at 3:30 p.m., while Mount Holyoke heads to Boston to face Emerson College on September 12 at 1:00 p.m.
