WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Visiting MIT swept to a 9-0 victory over Wellesley College tennis in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play on Saturday afternoon at Wellesley's Outdoor Courts. With the win, MIT improves to 2-0 on the season and in conference play. The Blue drop to 2-1 (1-1 NEWMAC) following their first defeat of the year.
The Engineers opened with a sweep of doubles play, as the nationally ranked duo of junior Elysa Kohrs (Half Moon Bay, Calif.) and senior Victoria Tam (Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.) rallied from a 5-4 deficit to defeat Wellesley's top pairing of sophomore Emily Olson (La Jolla, Calif.) and first year Justine Huang (Coto de Caza, Calif.), 8-5.
MIT sophomore Sonya Das (Arden Hills, Minn.) and first year Kelly Zhu (Houston, Texas) also picked up an 8-5 victory in #2 Doubles, defeating Blue junior Carina Chen (Hong Kong) and first year Rosanne Hu (Troy, Texas). MIT turned in its best result of doubles play at #3, thanks to an 8-1 victory by sophomore Dora Tzeng (Fremont, Calif.) and junior Krystal Lai (Irvine, Calif.) over Wellesley junior Andjela Stojkovic (Victoria, British Columbia) and first year Tristan Lorich (New York, N.Y.).
In singles play, Lorich was the lone Wellesley player to take a set, defeating Tam, 6-1, in the second set after dropping the opening set, 6-5. However, Tam took the tie-breaking third set by a 10-3 count to win the match at #5 singles.
Kohrs (6-2, 6-2 over Stojkovic) and Zhu (6-2, 6-0 over Huang) went on to earn victories in the #1 and #2 singles matches, while Tzeng (6-3, 6-3 over Chen) and Das (6-2, 6-3 over Olsen) added victories at #3 and #4. MIT sophomore Cindy Liu (Claremont, Calif.) closed out the sweep with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Hu at #6.
Both teams will continue NEWMAC play on Sunday afternoon, with Wellesley set to host Mount Holyoke at 11:00 AM. MIT will return home to welcome Springfield at 12:00 PM.
