CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Four players were double winners as the Simmons College women's tennis team defeated visiting Johnson & Wales University, 7-2, this afternoon in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference contest in Cambridge, Mass. at Harvard University's Beren Tennis Center. The Sharks improve to 5-5 on the season and a perfect 4-0 in GNAC play to extend their consecutive regular-season conference match win streak to 56 in a row. The Wildcats fall to 8-2 and 3-1.
Simmons took a 3-0 lead after sweeping doubles play. Sophomore Mary Matthews (Wakefield, R.I.) (0-4 singles, 4-4 doubles) combined with first year Ashley Chen (Hilo, Hawaii) (5-5 singles, 5-5 doubles) to earn an 8-5 victory at number three doubles over the Johnson & Wales duo of sophomore Taylor Klein (Johnson, N.Y.) and first year Lauren Torre (New Fairfield, Conn.) to put the Sharks on the board. Junior Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) (4-4 singles, 8-2 doubles) paired with senior Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.) to defeat the Wildcats' combo of junior Morgan Thompson (Fargo, N.D.) and first year Victoria Pizzulo (Lafayette, N.J.), 8-6. The Simmons senior tandem of Katie Crowley (Reading, Mass.) (5-4 singles, 4-5 doubles) and Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) (4-5 singles, 3-6 doubles) registered a 9-7 win over JWU's senior Emily Glass (Sterling, Conn.) and first year Delaney Macchirole (Greenport, N.Y.).
The Wildcats cut the deficit to 3-1 with a win at first singles. Thompson won the first set over Reinhard, 6-4, and won the match when Reinhard was forced to retire with an ailment. Cokely gave the Sharks a 4-1 lead with a 6-1, 6-0 victory at second singles, handing Glass her first singles loss on the season and also becoming the first player in school history to reach 50 career singles wins. Downey clinched the match for the home team with a 6-2, 6-1 win at number four singles over Torre for Johnson and Wales for a 5-1 advantage.
The Wildcats got a point back at sixth singles, courtesy of a 6-1, 6-2 effort by Macchirole over Matthews to make it 5-2. Simmons won the final two singles contests. Chen breezed past Pizzulo at fifth singles, 6-2, 6-2, before Crowley came back to down Klein in three sets at third singles. Crowley rebounded from a 6-2 first set loss to win the second frame, 7-6 (6), and the third set, 10-7 in pro-set form to saddle Klein with her first singles defeat of the year. The singles match took over three hours to contribute to the dual match time of just under four and a half hours.
The Sharks return to action on Saturday, October 10 when they play their final home match of the fall at 3:45 p.m. vs. conference foe Albertus Magnus College in a match to be played on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. Johnson & Wales will be in action again on the same day at 6:00 p.m., hosting Suffolk University at 6:00 p.m.