Women’s Tennis Falls to Wellesley In Tuesday’s NEWMAC Match, 6-3
Wellesley College defeated the MIT women’s tennis team 6-3 in their match last Tuesday. The match started with doubles play as usual. The team of Leslie A. Hansen ’10 and Anastasia Vishnevetsky ’12 finished first, destroying their opponents 8-1. Next off was the team of Anisa K. McCree ’10 and Melissa A. Diskin ’11, who lost their tough match 8-1.
The exhibition match of Alexandria C. Hall ’12 and Jennifer A. Rees ’11 came off next, losing a close match 6-8, leaving the number three team front and center. Karina N. Pikhart ’09 and Yi Wang ’09 played a tough match, fighting all the way. The points were quick and precise, and the lead changed sides repeatedly until the very end. In the end, Pikhart and Wang lost the match 6-8, leaving MIT behind 1-2 going into the singles matches.
Coach Carol Matsuzaki told the team that the mantra of the day was fight: “You want to be the person that when the teammate next to you looks over, they get inspired to fight harder.” The rest of the match went by in a blur. McCree lost her match 6-2, 6-0, and was closely followed by Wang who won her match 6-2, 6-0. Hall lost a hard fought match 6-1, 6-1. Next off was Diskin who lost her match 6-4, 6-0. Vishnevetsky defeated her opponent in a close match, winning 6-4, 6-3. Next off was Rees, who lost her exhibition match 6-1, 7-5.
This left only two matches still contested, each going into the third set. Pikhart went down fighting, losing her match 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, leaving Hansen in the spot light. Hansen fought hard and the points went back and forth between the opponents; in the end Hansen lost 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.