NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - Simmons College senior Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) won the West Bracket Final at the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament hosted by Smith College today in Northampton, Mass.

Downey (5-5 singles, 10-7 doubles) teamed with senior Alana Peters (Killingworth, Ill.) of Massachusetts Institute of Technology to win their fifth straight match of the tournament, defeating the Amherst College duo of sophomore Adrienne Irmer (Minnetonka, Minn.) and first year Sofia Aisiks (New York, N.Y.), 8-3.

Sophomore Mary Matthews (Wakefield, R.I.) (1-3 singles, 6-8 doubles) and first year Ashley Chen (Hilo, Hawaii) (6-5 singles, 8-10 doubles) combined to play for the Southwest bracket crown for the Sharks, but fell to the Trinity College pair of sophomore Sydney Schonefeld (Tiburon, Calif.) and first year Katherine DiRico (Key Largo, Fla.), 8-4.

Simmons senior Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.) (8-2 singles, 12-4 doubles) and junior Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) (6-4 singles, 12-4 doubles) capped the weekend with an 8-6 victory over the Williams College first year duo of Francesca Eluhu (Brentwood, Tenn.) and Korina Neveux (Miami, Fla.).

The top-seeded Sharks return to action on Saturday, October 24 when they play the winner of number five seed Albertus Magnus College and number four seed University of Saint Joseph (Conn.) at 2:00 p.m. in the Semifinals of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Championship at the Winchester Tennis Center in Winchester, Mass.