Lily Chu picked-up the lone Blue victory at No. 6 singles (Frank Poulin).
Lily Chu picked-up the lone Blue victory at No. 6 singles (Frank Poulin).

Skidmore Downs Wellesley Tennis, 8-1

WELLESLEY, Mass. – No. 13 Skidmore College earned an 8-1 non-conference victory over Wellesley College tennis on Saturday at Dorothy Towne Fieldhouse.

The Thoroughbreds have now won three straight and are 9-3 overall on the season. Wellesley is 9-5 following back-to-back loses this weekend. 

Wellesley sophomore Lily Chu (Princeton, N.J.) picked-up the lone Blue victory in the match, defeating Skidmore first year Arielle Gal (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) at No. 6 singles. Chu dropped the first set, 6-3, but rallied to tie the match with a 6-4 win in the second set. Chu then took the final set tiebreaker by a final score of 10-7.

Skidmore swept through doubles play to take a 3-0 lead into singles. First years Dea Koiava (New York, N.Y.) and Lily Feldman (Bettendorf, Iowa) opened with an 8-3 win over senior Rosanne Hu (Sugar Land, Texas) and first year Michelle Shen (Dallas, Texas) at no. 3. At No. 1, junior Jessica Ampel (Evanston, Ill.) and first year Audrey SooHoo (Alameda, Calif.) followed with an 8-5 win over first year Michaela Markwart (Hanover, Mass.) and senior Justine Huang (Coto de Caza, Calif.). 

An 8-5 win at No. 1 for Risa Fukushige (Tokyo, Japan) and Renee Karchere-Sun (South Brunswick, N.J.) over junior Selina Peng (Taichung, Taiwan) and first year Libby Chang (San Marino, Calif.) closed out doubles play. The Thoroughbreds would go on to win five of the remaining singles matches to close out the match.

Fukushige bested Huang at No. 1, 6-1, 6-0, and Koiava defeated Peng in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, to clinch the match at No. 2. Wins from Karchere-Sun (6-2, 6-3, over Markwart at No. 3) and Feldman (6-0, 6-3 versus Chang at No. 4) put the Thoroughbreds up 7-0. SooHoo then held on for a three set win at No. 5, defeating Shen 6-7 (9), 6-2, 10-7.

Wellesley returns to New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play on Tuesday, April 9, at 3:30 PM. Skidmore will make the trip across town to play Brandeis tomorrow, April 7, at 10:00 AM.