Blue Tennis Opens Season at ITA Regional Championships

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. -- Three members of the Wellesley College tennis team opened the 2019-20 season on Friday at the 2019 ITA Division III Women's New England Regional Tennis Championship, hosted by Middlebury College. In all, 17 New England Division III schools were represented at the start of play on Friday. 

In singles play, sophomore Libby Chang (San Marino, Calif.) and senior Selina Peng (Taichung, Taiwan) each won in the opening round before falling to second round opponents. Sophomore Michelle Shen (Dallas, Texas) dropped her first round match to Madeline Suk (Minnetonka, Minn.) of Tufts. 

Chang defeated Isabel Cepeda (Mason, Ohio) of Brandeis, 6-2, 6-4, to advance out of the opening round. Chang went on to face Sarah Pertsemlidis (Coppell, Texas) of MIT, but fell to the Engineer first year, who is one of the top-16 seeded players in the bracket.

Peng shook off a first set sweep to rally for an 0-6, 6-2, (10-5) victory over first year Isabella Hariman (New York, N.Y.) of Trinity (Conn.) in the first round of play. She then dropped her next match to eighth-seeded Libby Rickeman (Wayzata, Minn.) of MIT, 6-1, 6-1. 

In doubles action, Peng and Chang, Wellesley's No. 1 doubles squad for much of the 2018-19 season, dropped a tight final to sophomore Carly Levitz (Chappaqua, N.Y.) and first year Crystal Xu Xu (Bellevue, Wash.) of Colby in the first round. Peng and Chang played the Colby duo to a 7-7 tie before falling in a tiebreak, 8-7. 

Shen will conclude the ITA Regional Championships with an exhibition match tomorrow morning. The rest of the Blue will return to the courts, Friday and Saturday, October 11-12, at the Bowdoin Invitational.