Box Score FALMOUTH, Maine – No. 7 MIT kicked off the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championships by defeating No. 15 Tufts University, 4-1, on Saturday. With the win, the Engineers will be making their sixth consecutive appearance in the regional final.
THE BASICS:
- Score: No. 7 MIT 4, No. 15 Tufts 1
- Records: No. 7 MIT (17-2 Overall); No. 15 Tufts (16-7 Overall)
HOW IT HAPPENED - DOUBLES:
- Juniors Alaina Kolli (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Artemis Pados (Delray Beach, Fla.) defeated senior Sophie Wax (Newton, Mass.) and sophomore Natalie Hu (Scarsdale, N.Y.), 6-1, in the top spot.
- Senior Jay Lu (Austin, Texas) and first-year Chloe Zeng (Austin, Texas) jumped out to a 4-0 lead before going on to defeat first-years Brooklyn Bindas (Rochester, Mass.) and Athena Li (Foxborough, Mass.), 6-2, capturing the doubles point in the No. 2 position.
- Sophomores Saina Deshpande (Pune, India) and Anastasia Samets (Ocean, N.J.) had a 4-2 advantage against juniors Lucy Mitchell (Chicago, Ill.) and Nikki Kintiroglou (New Vernon, N.J.) before the No. 3 match was abandoned.
HOW IT HAPPENED - SINGLES:
- Trailing 2-1 to Li in the first set at the No. 3 position, Lu won five of six games to register a 6-3 victory. In the second set, Lu rattled off three straight wins to go up 5-3 en route to a 6-4 decision.
- First-year Nadia Khera (Houston, Texas) picked up Tufts' lone point of the day following a 6-3, 6-2 win over first-year Megan Sun (Newbury Park, Calif.) in the No. 6 position.
- After conceding the first game, Deshpande won six in a row to take the first set against Hu in the No. 4 slot. Deshpande carried the momentum into the second set as she built a 4-0 advantage. However, Hu narrowed the gap to 4-3. Both players traded games until Deshpande captured a 6-4 win.
- In a back-and-forth first set in the No. 1 spot, first-year Fiona Lee (Ladera Ranch, Calif.) won back-to-back games to take the 6-4 win against junior Ellie Gershaw (Kirkland, Wash.). The second set was another tight affair as Gershaw forced a tiebreaker. Lee raced out to a 6-1 lead before securing the tiebreaker with a 7-2 score, which clinched the match.
- At the No. 2 position, Mitchell won the first set against Zeng, 7-6 (9-7), but Zeng had a 4-1 lead when the match was halted.
- In the No. 5 slot, Bindas took the first set versus Kolli, 6-4, but Kolli bounced back for a 6-2 victory. In the third set, Bindas held a 4-3 edge.
UP NEXT:
- MIT will play host No. 8 Bowdoin College in the regional final on Sunday, May 11 at 2:00 PM.
- This is the second postseason meeting between both teams. The Engineers defeated the Polar Bears, 5-3, in the regional final of the 2019 NCAA Championship.
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