Tech Tennis heads to DIII nationals
Quisenberry, Zhang to compete
The list of the individuals who will be competing in the 2013 NCAA Division III Tennis Tournament was released on Wednesday afternoon, revealing the names of two MIT athletes. Lauren C. Quisenberry ’14 will represent the MIT women’s tennis team for the second time in her career, the last of which was in 2011, while Edwin M. Zhang ’14 will be making his first nationals appearance. The last MIT men’s tennis player to make it to NCAAs was Tom Dohlman in 2007.
The individual championships that will be taking place Thursday through Saturday, May 23–25 at Stowe Stadium in Kalamazoo, Mich., will consist of 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams.
So far this season, Quisenberry is 18-2 in singles play, with every match being played at No. 1. At NEWMACs, she was selected as the conference’s Women’s Tennis Athlete of the Year for the second time in her three years at MIT after winning both doubles and singles in the top spot against Wellesley College in the championship final.
Zhang has compiled a 12-5 record, with all games played in the No. 1 spot. At NEWMACs late last month, he was not only named to the All-Conference team but was also selected as the Athlete of the Year for his performances so far this season. He wrapped up the championship this year with two doubles wins at No. 1.
This information was released just two days after the announcement that both the women’s and men’s tennis teams at MIT had made it to the NCAA tournament. After winning its first conference title since 2002 back in October, the women’s team received an automatic bid to the national tournament. This will be just the third time in the history of the women’s program that the Engineers have been invited to nationals, the last time being in 2000. MIT is 1-3 in NCAA play.
The men will be making their eighth consecutive trip to NCAAs. The Engineers are fresh off winning their 15th consecutive New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) title after defeating Babson College with a score of 5-1 at home two weeks ago. Last year at NCAAs, after receiving a first round bye, the Engineers defeated Stevens Institute of Technology with a score of 5-1 in the second round before falling to Williams College in the third with a score of 5-0. Overall, MIT is 11-19 in NCAA action.
First to play are the men, who will face the winner of the UMass-Boston vs. Skidmore in the second round at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, May 10 at Williams. If victorious, the Engineers will enter the third round on Saturday morning.
The No. 20 nationally-ranked women’s program opened the tournament by battling Simmons College in the first round yesterday at 2:30 p.m. The winner of that round will go on to face Middlebury College at 2:30 p.m. today. The quarterfinals, semifinals and finals for both the men and the women will be played from Monday through Wednesday, May 20–22 in Kalamazoo.