NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - Simmons College women's tennis player Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.) became the first player in school history to reach 100 career combined victories with a doubles win this afternoon at the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament hosted by Smith College in Northampton, Mass.
The tournament has one 64-team bracket with doubles matches only. Each match will be played to eight points, with winning teams advancing in the East bracket and losing teams moving to the West (consolation) bracket after the first round.
Cokely (8-2 singles, 9-3 doubles) combined with junior Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) (6-4 singles, 9-3 doubles) to earn a convincing 8-0 first round victory over the Mount Holyoke College pair of junior Caitlyn Johnston (Jupiter, Fla.) and Katherine Schumacher (Baldwinsville, N.Y.). Cokely and Reinhard fell in the second round of the East draw to the Babson College duo of sophomores Yagmur Akgul (Instanbul, Turkey) and Jenny Quenard (St.-Legier, Switzerland), 8-1.
Cokely is now 100-52 (.658) in her career, including 52-20 in singles action.
First year Ashley Chen (Hilo, Hawaii) (6-5 singles, 7-7 doubles) paired with sophomore Mary Matthews (Wakefield, R.I.) (1-3 singles, 5-6 doubles) to take on Brandeis University's sophomore Haley Cohen (Cherry Hill, N.J.) and first year Olivia Leavitt (Falmouth, Maine), but fell, 8-0. The Simmons pair was defeated in the Consolation First Round, 8-2, later in the day by juniors Rachel London (Port Jefferson, N.Y.) and Nicole Piazza (Portland, Conn.).
Senior Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) (5-5 singles, 6-7 doubles) paired with Massachusetts Institute of Technology senior Alana Peters (Kenilworth, Ill.) as a mixed team. The duo fell to Trinity College's senior Melita Ferjanic (Samobor, Croatia) and sophomore Vanja Babunski (Belgrade, Serbia), 8-3. Downey and Peters rebounded for an 8-5 victory in the first round of the consolation draw over the Brandeis pair of senior Hannah Marion (Hillsborough, S.C.) and sophomore Danielle Simms (Chattanooga, Tenn.).
Simmons returns to action tomorrow in Northampton, Mass. with their first match beginning at 9:00 a.m.