Eph Teams Advance at NEWITTs
NORTHAMPTON, MA – The Ephs commenced play at the New England Women’s Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament (NEWITT) today. Williams sent four groups of two players to the competition, and all moved on to the Round of 16 to be played tomorrow.
This tournament has a unique format where players advance in pairs in a best out of three system. They face pairs from other teams and split up to play two singles matches. Then, they reunite to play a doubles match for the third contest. Williams had the teams of Cary Gibson/Nikki Reich and Annie Hancock/Ashley Parsons competing in Group A, and Kate Freidman/Caroline Capute and Genny Loomis/Kristin Alotta playing in Group B.
“Today was a good start to the tournament,” said Coach Alison Swain. “We had quite a battle in Cary and Nikki's matches, but they came together in doubles to pull out the deciding victory.”
Gibson and Reich played the team of Chandra Kurien/Clare Burke from Middlebury. Gibson dropped her match against Burke in a closely fought match-up. The contest came down to a tiebreaker to determine the winner, with Burke topping out 10-7. Fortunately, Reich had better luck, soundly defeating Kurien 6-2, 6-4. In their doubles play, the Ephs were able to close out the match 8-5 to end a tough round of play.
The other Williams sides had an easier day of it, all beating their opponents 3-0. In the nine matches played between those three teams, the collectively lost a stingy three games.
“Tomorrow will surely present some very tough on court battles,” noted Swain. “We are looking forward to the challenge, and I think everyone on the team is enjoying the tournament format with the mini, 2 team dual matches.”
Play continues tomorrow at 9am in Northampton for Gibson/Reich, Hancock/Parsons, and Freidman/Capute. The first duo will face the top team from Brandeis University and Freidman/Capute will play Nichol’s number one pair. Loomis/Alotta will take the courts at noon.
| A DRAW | |
| #1 Williams 2, #3 Middlebury 1 | |
| Cary Gibson/Nikki Reich (W) def. Clare Burke/Chandra Kurien (Midd) | 8-5 |
| Clare Burke (Midd) def. Cary Gibson (W) | 0-6, 6-1, 10-7 |
| Nikki Reich (W) def. Chandra Kurien (Midd) | 6-2, 6-4 |
| #2 Williams 3, #1 Simmons 0 | |
| Annie Hancock/Ashley Parsons (W) def. Maile Maleod/Stacey Kohan (S) | 8-1 |
| Ashley Parsons (W) def. Maile Macleod (S) | 6-1, 6-0 |
| Annie Hancock (W) def. Stacey Kohan (S) | 6-0, 6-0 |
| B DRAW | |
| #3 Williams 3, #2 Nichols 0 | |
| Kristin Alotta/Genny Loomis (W) def. Molly McGuire/Maria Balabanova (N) | 8-0 |
| Kristin Alotta (W) def. Molly McGuire (N) | 6-0, 6-0 |
| Genny Loomis (W) def. Maria Balabanova (N) | 6-1, 6-0 |
| #4 Williams 3, #4 Connecticut College 0 | |
| Katie Freidman/Caroline Capute (W) def. Caroline Barone/Akiel Olswanger (C) | default |
| Katie Freidman (W) def. Caroline Barone (Conn) | 6-0, 6-0 |
| Caroline Capute (W) def. Akiel Olswanger (Conn) | 6-0, 1-0 (ret.) |
