Women's Tennis Knocked Off in NEWMAC Semi-Finals

NORTHAMPTON, Mass.-- The MIT Engineers women's tennis program had a strong fall season ended Saturday at the hands of Wellesley College. The Blue will play for their sixth New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference tournament title in seven years after advancing with a 5-2 win in the semi-finals over MIT on the campus of Smith College.

The Blue (8-2) took two of three doubles matches and four of six singles matches to advance to their second consecutive tournament final, where they will face a rematch of the 2009 final against Wheaton College (Mass.).

The Engineers (5-4) stole a win at No. 1 doubles, with the duo of Julia Hsu and Lauren Quisenberry topping Jacqueline Shen and Diana Granger 8-2, but Wellesley won at No. 2 and No. 3, as the tandem of Erica Choo and Kendal Tada defeated Katie O'Neal and Melissa Diskin 8-4 at No. 2, and the pairing of Nathalie Herman and Raji Nagalla edged out Jenny Dohlman and Hillary Jenny 9-7 at No. 3.

Quisenberry grabbed MIT's other point with a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 1 singles, but the Blue closed out the match with wins at Nos. 2, 3, and 5. Choo beat Hsu 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2, while Herman recorded a 6-4, 6-0 win over O'Neal at No. 3. Granger then beat Jenny 6-1, 6-1 at No. 5 to close out the match. Wellesley also was winning at No. 4 and No. 6 when the match ended.

Wheaton and Wellesley, the top two seeds in the tournament, will meet at on Sunday, October 24th for the NEWMAC tournament title. Wheaton knocked off Babson College 5-3 in the other semifinal matchup.

Release Courtesy of Smith Sports Information