Blue Tennis Finishes as Seven Sisters Runner-Up

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- Wellesley College tennis finished the 2015 Seven Sisters Championship with a 3-1 record, falling only to tournament champion Vassar in the de facto championship match, 4-1, on Sunday afternoon at the Smith Tennis Courts. Mount Holyoke took third with a 2-2 record, while Smith (1-3) and Bryn Mawr (0-4) rounded out the team standings.

Blue senior Sojung Lee and first year Emily Olson each earned a place on the Seven Sisters All-Tournament Team. The Wellesley duo was joined by Margaret Anne Smith and Samantha Peikes of Smith, Amy Chen and Ishita Tibrewal from Mount Holyoke, Melina Koukoutchos of Bryn Mawr, and Kate Christensen, Hanna McGuire and Morgan Fitzgerald of the champion Brewers.

Wellesley picked up its third straight 5-0 victory in Sunday's first match, defeating host Smith. Sophomores Samantha Stone and Dasha Kostikina earned a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Margaret Anne Smith and Smantha Peikes at first doubles, while classmate Caroline Dickensheets and first year Caroline Hsu eased to 6-0, 6-0 sweep of Alexandra Steck and Seema Samawi at number two. 

In singles play, Lee and Olson secured victories in the number one and number two match-ups, with Lee defeating Smith's Jordan Dubin (6-1, 6-1) and Olson topping Kelli Cheung (6-1, 6-0). First year Victoria Wu assured the Blue sweep with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Ruth Yi in the third singles matchup.

Vassar's morning victory over Bryn Mawr (5-0) set up a Seven Sisters title bout between the Brewers and the Blue in the weekend's final match. 

Olson earned the Blue's lone victory in the match, defeating Winnie Yeates in the third singles match, 6-4, 6-0. 

The Brewers eased to victory at number two doubles and number two singles, as Morgan Fitzgerald and Hanna McGuire defeated Dickensheets and Hsu (6-1, 6-0) in doubles and Ava Sadeghi defeated sophomore Carina Chen (6-3, 6-1) in singles play. 

The match was decided by a pair of three set matches between the number one singles players and the top doubles pairings. 

In number one doubles, Shayna Becker and Smantha Schapiro narrowly took a first set victory over Kostikina and Stone, 7-5, before the Wellesley sophomores rallied for a 6-3 win in the second set. In the end, the Brewers prevailed, taking the final set 6-2. 

A pair of all-tournament honorees squared off in a top singles match that saw the Blue's Sojung Lee jump out to a one set advantage with a 6-2 victory in the opening set. However, Christensen rallied to take the next two sets (6-4, 6-3) to win the match for the Brewers. 

Wellesley, now 13-6 overall, will play the first of two home matches to close out the season on Friday when they host Tufts at 4:00 PM.