TROY, N.Y. – Wellesley College tennis narrowly fell 4-3 in an evenly matched contest with RPI at Sharp Courts on Sunday. The Blue (4-1) split singles against the Engineers (2-0) after dropping the doubles point.

RPI won No. 1 and 2 doubles to take a 1-0 lead. Sophomores Lily Cade (Minneapolis, Minn.) and Kriti Sarav (Chicago, Ill.) gave Wellesley an early head start in doubles, winning the No. 3 line 6-1 over RPI first years Taylor Chandler (Broken Arrow, Okla.) and Gauri Muliyil (Perry Hall, Md.). 

RPI struck back with a 6-3 win at No. 2 doubles by first years Anushka Jaiswal (Fremont, Calif.) and Victoria Sarabosing (Irvine, Calif.) against sophomore Suzanne Xu (Boyds, Md.) and first year Sophie Buttorff (Tacoma, Wash.). The deciding factor was No. 1 doubles, where Engineers' senior Lorna Flores Gonzalez (Sugar Land, Texas) and junior Nicole Ridenour (Minneapolis, Minn.) took a 7-6(2) tiebreaker over first years Kotistha Modak (Chennai, India) and Sofia Corte-Real (Stamford, Conn.).

Sarabosing doubled the Engineers' lead with 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 over Buttorff at No. 4 singles. First year Rianna Mariotti (Forest Hills, N.Y.) put the Blue on the scoreboard at No. 6 singles against first year Neha Saraswatula (Edison, N.J.). After dropping the first set 6-4, Mariotti claimed the second and third with 6-1, 6-2 scorelines. 

Wellesley knotted the contest at 2-2 at No. 3 singles. Corte-Real hung tough in a three-set battle with Muliyil. Down 6-2 after a set, Corte-Real grabbed 6-3 and 6-2 sets to complete the comeback.

Ridenour topped Xu at No. 2 singles 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. Modak leveled the match with a 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 war at the top singles slot.

It came down to No. 5 singles with first year Nandini Patel (Phoenix, Ariz.) representing the Blue against Jaiswal. Jaiswal took the opener 6-4 before Patel won a 9-7 tiebreaker to even it up. RPI ultimately won 10-6 in the third set tiebreak to finish out the match.

Next up, the Blue will host Trinity College at 1:00 PM on Saturday, March 1. The Engineers welcome The College of New Jersey at 1:00 PM on Sunday, March 23.