SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – The Simmons College tennis tandem of junior Katie Crowley (Reading, Mass.) and first yearHan DK Le (Tra Vinh, Vietnam/Matignon HS (Mass.)) continued their winning ways at the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament in the "D" draw, winning both their quarterfinals and semifinals matches in South Hadley, Mass. to vault into the bracket's championship match. The tournament is being co-hosted by Mount Holyoke College and Smith College.
The tournament has four 16-team brackets and each matchup features a doubles match and two singles matches with the winner being decided by a best two-out-of-three format.
Crowley and Le defeated Mount Holyoke, 3-0, on Friday and today they took on Nichols College in the quarterfinal round. Crowley defeated Ashley Dallaire in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2 and combined with Le to down Dallaire and Daniela Saldarriaga in doubles action, 8-4. Le was beaten by Saldarriaga in singles play, 6-2, 3-6, 10-5 to end her six-match win streak in singles action.
The duo took on Wheaton College in the finals, winning all three matches to advance to the championship round. Crowley recorded a 6-0, 6-3 decision over Kathryn Burleson, while Le was the victor over Stassy Furber, 6-7, 7-5, 10-4. The Simmons pair then put together an 8-3 showing in doubles action to secure the finals spot.
The Sharks junior tandem of Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) and Caroline Khoury (Portsmouth, Ohio) held the top seed in the "D" draw and received a first round bye, before being edged by Babson College in the quarterfinals, 2-1. Downey registered a match win for Simmons with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph over Ashland Stansbury, while Khoury was downed by Courtney Fischer, 6-3, 6-4. The Beavers' duo won the deciding point with an 8-3 victory in doubles action.
Sophomore Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) and Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.) were also in action for the Sharks in the consolation round of the "B" draw. Cokely cruised by Mount Holyoke's Ishita Tibrewal, 6-0, 6-2, while Reinhard won a hard-fought singles match with Margaux Hollowchutz, coming back after falling in the first set, 6-2, she won the second, 6-4, and closed out the match with a 10-4 decision in the third. The pair also scored a victory in doubles action with an 8-3 win. Due to time constraints, the rest of the consolation bracket could not be played to completion.
Crowley and Le will be in action again tomorrow when they square off against Babson in the finals at 10:00 a.m. on the campus of Mount Holyoke.