NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - Senior Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) won all three of her matches today to advance to the Consolation Finals of her draw at the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament hosted by Smith College in Northampton, Mass.
Downey (5-5 singles, 9-7 doubles) is paired with senior Alana Peters (Kenilworth, Ill.) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The duo began the day with an 8-5 victory over Wheaton College's first years Francisca Secor (Waterford, Conn.) and Connor O'Keefe (Lutz, Fla.). Downey and Peters moved on to down the team of junior Alex Colas (Teaneck, N.J.) and sophomore Ishita Tibrewal (Kolkata, India) from Mount Holyoke College, 8-4. Downey and Peters capped their perfect day with an 8-5 triumph over the Mount Holyoke duo of junior Amy Chen (Hilo, Hawaii), who is the sister of Simmons first year, Ashley, and first year Madison Rosen (Portland, Ore.).
Senior Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.) (8-2 singles, 11-4 doubles) and junior partner Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) (6-4 singles, 11-4 doubles) went 2-1 on the day, beginning by dropping just one game in an 8-1 victory over Wheaton's senior pair of Caroline DiNicola-Fawley (Brattleboro, Vt.) and Izzy Gorham (Durham, N.H.). Cokely and Reinhard were taken down in their middle match vs. Amherst College's first years Jane Fraley (Edina, Minn.) and Kelly Yang (Plymouth, Minn.), 8-2. Cokely and Reinhard closed out the day's competition with an 8-5 win over the Gordon College pair of senior Tawnie Yeaw (Foothill Ranch, Calif.) and first year Abigail Denney (Peoria, Ariz.). The victory was the 50th career doubles win for Cokely.
Sophomore Mary Matthews (Wakefield, R.I.) (1-3 singles, 6-7 doubles) and first year Ashley Chen (Hilo, Hawaii) (6-5 singles, 8-8 doubles) split a pair of matches for the day for the Sharks. The combo dropped their first match vs. seniors Stassy Furber (Montpelier, Vt.) and Caroline Stanclift (Camden, Maine) from Wheaton, 8-3. Matthews and Chen regrouped and did not drop a game to the Smith first year duo of Faith Flowers (New York City, N.Y.) and Dana Smith (Peekskill, N.Y.) in an 8-0 win.
Simmons returns to action on Sunday, October 18 for the final day of competition at NEWITT.