Women's tennis ends regular season by besting Williams, 5-4

“We put the loss to Williams at NESCAC’s behind us,” said Wallis Molchen ’04. “Everyone stepped up when they needed to get the job done.”

The Jeffs jumped out to an early lead by taking two of the three doubles matches. The top doubles team of Tristan Hedrick ’05 and Rachel Holt ’05 fell 8-3, but the second and third teams both pulled out convincing wins. Co-captain Roopali Agarwal ’03 and Hadley Miller ’06 took an 8-4 win in second doubles, while Molchen and Erin Murphy ’05 dominated on their way to an 8-2 win.

With a 2-1 lead entering singles play all the Jeffs had to do was split the six matches to take home the win. And they did just that, fighting for wins in the second, third and fifth singles slots.

Holt, coming off a semifinal appearance at the conference championships, easily dispatched Julie Mallory in second singles 6-2, 6-0. Her doubles partner Hedrick had nearly as easy a time in winning the third singles match, beating Alex MacLennan 6-0, 6-3. Agarwal took the final win with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Tina Howe in the fifth singles slot.

“Williams is probably our toughest competition in the east, so winning was a huge confidence booster and momentum builder going into regionals and nationals,” said Kristen Raverta ’06.

After the nail-biter against Williams, the Jeffs coasted through a match against Wellesley College on Sunday, dominating the Blue by a score of 9-0.

The Jeffs’ next action comes this weekend with the first round of the NCAA Tournament. As the top seed in the East Region, they received a first round bye as well as host status for their opening round. They play their first match this coming Sunday. With a victory they will advance to the Elite Eight which will be held in Redlands, Calif. this year.