Women’s Tennis plays in Wellesley Invitational
Engineers defeat SUNY New Paltz 7-2, take down Wellesley 5-4 official, 6-4 unofficial
This past weekend MIT Women’s Tennis played in the Wellesley Invitational. In the first match they played SUNY New Paltz. The doubles matches went quickly. The number one team of Lauren C. Quisenberry ’14 and Candace L. Wu ’14 and the number two team of Julia C. Hsu ’14 and Bianca M. Dumitrascu ’13 both defeated their opponents with a decisive score of 8-1. At number three Melissa A. Diskin ’11 and Katharine A. O’Neal ’14 defeated their opponents 8-3. During the doubles matches, Jenny C. Dohlman ’11 played an exhibition match at seven singles and completed her match quickly, defeating her opponent 8-0, hardly losing a point. Overall, MIT went into the singles matches ahead 3-0.
The singles matches got off to a good start. Quisenberry at one defeated her opponent quickly with a score of 6-0, 6-1. Dumitrascu at four also defeated her opponent quickly and decisively with a score of 6-1, 6-1. Hsu at three also had a quick match, only dropping a few games to her opponent, winning 6-2, 6-1. O’Neal at five played a tough match and lost 6-3, 6-3, giving Paltz their first win. At two, Wu played a tough match but pulled it out, winning 6-3, 6-4. Jennifer A. Rees ’11 played an exhibition match at eight singles and won her match easily, 8-2. Last on was Diskin playing number six singles. She won the first set 6-1 but lost the second set 1-6. The match came to the third tiebreak, where Diskin lost 10-4. Ultimately, MIT defeated New Paltz 7-2.
The match against Wellesley was played outside, which evened the odds between the teams since Wellesley’s indoor courts are faster than what MIT normally practices on. It started off with the doubles matches. Near the start of the doubles matches, the second court net broke, causing a pause in play. This caused Dohlman and Rees’ match to be paused at 1-1 deuce until later in the match when more courts opened up. The number one doubles team of Quisenberry and Wu played a tough match and kept attacking the net. They ended up winning their match 8-2. Hsu and Dumitrascu at two doubles overpowered their opponents, winning 8-2 as well. At three double Diskin and O’Neal played a tough match. Diskin ran down balls and both players kept attacking the net. In the end Diskin and O’Neal lost 8-5. This gave MIT a lead of 2-1 going into the singles matches.
In between matches, the second court net was fixed so the first four singles matches could be put on. Dumitrascu was the first one off, playing at number four. She overpowered her opponent and won the match 6-0, 6-2. Quisenberry was the next player to come off, playing number one singles. Both players ran each other around on the court, taking turns between who was on the offense and defense. In the end, Quisenberry controlled the court more often by playing an aggressive match and won 6-2, 6-2. This left MIT in the lead 4-1 over Wellesley. Five and six singles were then put on the courts and the number four doubles allowed to continue their match as courts opened up.
The next player off was Wu, playing at number two. She played a close match, but was more consistent than her opponent and won 6-2, 6-4, bringing the match to decision. Hsu at three singles was the next one off. In the first set she was down 4-1 but came back to make the set back on serve at 5-4. She ended up losing the close match 7-5, 6-1. The number four doubles team of Dohlman and Rees was off next. They played aggressively and kept attacking the net. In the end they defeated their opponents with a decisive score of 8-3. O’Neal at five singles was the next match to finish. O’Neal played a tough match but ended up losing 6-3, 6-0. This left Diskin front and center at six singles. Diskin won the first set 6-1 and brought the second set to a tiebreaker. She lost the tiebreaker 7-5, which left it to a third set tiebreak. In the tiebreak, Diskin barely lost with a score of 10-8. Overall this left MIT with an official win of 5-4 over Wellesley, unofficial 6-4. According to MIT’s coach, Carol Matsuzaki, this was the first time the team has defeated Wellesley in eight or nine years. Next weekend, the team is playing at home against Bates.