Wellesley Tennis Falls to Division-I URI
WELLESLEY, Mass. – The Wellesley tennis team dropped a close 5-4 decision to Division-I University of Rhode Island on Wednesday evening in Wellesley. The match was held indoors at the Keohane Sports Center due to inclement weather.
Wellesley took an early 2-1 advantage in doubles, winning two of three matches. After falling 8-6 in first doubles, Wellesley bounced back with two straight wins. Marie Watanabe (Houston, TX) and Grace Cheng (Columbia, MD) picked up an 8-6 win over the URI pair of Pam Emery and Amanda Barletta in the second spot and at third doubles, Shivani Saxena (Milan Italy) andJacquelina Shen (Calgary, Alberta, CA) were 8-5 winners over Grace Hedstrom and Valerie Chacon.
The Blue seemed to have the match wrapped up after Watanabe and Schwarzkopf won first and second singles to take a 4-1 lead. Watanabe was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Kirsten Leikem while Schwarzkopf defeated Tristany Leikem 6-2, 6-2. However, after winning the first set in each of the number three and four flights, the Blue dropped third through six singles to end the match at 5-4 in favor of URI.
The loss drops the Blue to 7-2 on the season while Rhode Island stays unbeaten with a 6-0 record.
Wellesley is next in action at the New England Women's and Men's Athletics Conference (NEWMAC) Championships on Sunday at Mount Holyoke. The Blue will play at 9:30am against the winner of Mount Holyoke and Babson.
Wellesley College Tennis
October 22, 2008
Univ. of Rhode Island 5, Wellesley 4
Doubles
1. Tristany Leikem/Kirsten Leikem (URI) def. Jen Schwarzkopf/Mohona Siddique (W), 8-6
2. Marie Watanabe/Grace Cheng (W) def. Amanda Barletta/Pam Emery (URI), 8-6
3. Shivani Saxena/Jacqueline Shen (W) def. Grace Hedstrom/ Valerie Chacon (URI), 8-5
Singles
1. Marie Watanabe (W) def. Kirsten Leikem (URI), 6-3, 6-3
2. Jen Schwarzkopf (W) def. Tristany Leikem (URI), 6-2, 6-2
3. Pam Emory (URI) def. Shivani Saxena (W), 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
4. Christen Cadigan (URI) def. Mohona Siddique (W), 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
5. Valerie Chacon (URI) def. Grace Cheng (W), 6-4, 6-3
6. Amanda Barletta (URI) def. Anjalee Martin (W), 6-0, 6-1
*7. Grace Hedstrom (URI) def. Jacqueline Shen (W), 8-7
*8. Brooke Hoover (URI) def. Katie Ching (W), 8-5
*9. Brooke Hoover (URI) def. Malika Hayashi (W), 8-4
*Exhibition