WELLESLEY, Mass. – No. 6 MIT scored a 6-1 win over No. 35 Wellesley College tennis in a NEWMAC showdown Friday at The Amy Batchelor '88, Trustee, Tennis Courts.
Sophomore Sophie Buttorff (Tacoma, Wash.) was the lone winner for the Blue (6-4 Overall, 2-1 NEWMAC) at No. 4 singles.
MIT (9-2 Overall, 3-0 NEWMAC) won at all three lines in doubles to open the match up 1-0.
Junior Anastasia Samets (Ocean, N.J.) and first-year Katie Driscoll (Easton, Conn.) kicked things off at No. 3 with a 6-3 performance over sophomores Nandini Patel (Phoenix, Ariz.) and Rianna Mariotti (Forest Hills, N.Y.).
No. 1 doubles followed suit shortly after. The No. 17 ranked team of seniors Alaina Kolli (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Artemis Pados (Delray Beach, Fla.) snagged a 6-1 victory over Wellesley's top team of senior Emilee Pak (Chicago, Ill.) and junior Suzanne Xu (Boyds, Md.).
At No. 2 doubles sophomore Chloe Zeng (Austin, Texas) and first-year Carley Chen (San Diego, Calif.) picked up steam in a 6-2 set, winning the final four games in-a-row against junior Kriti Sarav (Chicago, Ill.) and first-year Luna Bian (Buffalo Grove, Ill.).
Zeng pushed the Engineers' lead to 2-0 with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Patel at No. 2 singles.
No. 20 ranked junior Saina Deshpande (Pune, India) followed shortly after at the No. 1 spot, winning 6-2, 6-0 over Blue sophomore Sofia Corte-Real (Stamford, Conn.).
Sophomore Sophie Buttorff (Tacoma, Wash.) put Wellesley in the scoring column with a No. 4 singles triumph against Chen. Buttorff was sharp in 6-2 and 6-3 sets.
MIT locked up the match with straight-set showings at No. 5 and 6 singles. At No. 5, first-year Sophia Yang (Irvine, Calif.) toppled Sarav, 6-2, 6-1. Classmate Rayna Li (Dallas, Texas) was close behind at No. 6, defeating Pak 6-3, 6-2.
Bian and Driscoll were the final match to conclude at No. 3 singles. The pair split the first two, with Driscoll taking a 6-4 first and Bian responding with a 7-5 second. Driscoll turned the tides in the third set tiebreaker, winning 10-1.
Both teams play road matches tomorrow at noon. The Blue head to Brandeis University for a non-conference bout. The Engineers compete in a conference contest at Wheaton College.
