MIT Eliminates Women's Tennis in NEWMAC Quarterfinal Match, 5-4

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology played host to the 2009 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Women's Tennis Championship Saturday at the J.B. Carr Tennis Bubble. The two-day event began with quarterfinal matches as the #6 seed Engineers of MIT took on the #3 Beavers of Babson College and the #5 Lyons of Mount Holyoke College challenged the #4 Pioneers of Smith College. After the day was done, the Engineers and Pioneers were victorious, and the Beavers and Lyons were
eliminated.

In the day's first match between MIT and Babson, the Engineers looked to avenge their regular season loss from just four days ago. MIT senior Leslie Hansen, who was absent from Tuesday's match proved to be the difference maker when the Engineers pulled to a quick 2-1 lead after doubles play.

In singles action, Hansen claimed a win over Jes Huang [6-4, 6-2], and though she struggled in the first set, Anastasia Vishnevetsky rallied to beat Rebecca Stone [5-7, 6-3, 6-3] to put MIT up 4-1. The determined Beavers would not fall easily, as Lorena Becerra, Monica Mercer, and Gabriela Baez picked up wins in their singles matches to tie the match at 4-4.

Everything came down to the #5 match between MIT's Alex Hall and Babson's Mikaela Stamas. After Hall won the first set, the two traded games in the second until Stamas broke Hall's serve in the tenth game to win the set. In the deciding set, Hall was unstoppable and swept the set to win the match [6-4, 4-6, 6-0] and to give the Engineers a 5-4 victory, advancing them to the semifinals against the #2 Blue of Wellesley College on Sunday at 9:30
a.m.