BENNINGTON, VT (March 9, 2024) -- The No. 15 Tufts University women's tennis team played a marathon, six-hour match indoors against No. 7 Williams College Saturday, but in the end the Jumbos were bested by the host Ephs in a nailbiter 5-4 in action from the Bennington Tennis Center.
The Jumbos went into single's play down 2-1 after first-year
Natalie Hu and sophomore
Stephanie Woodbury earned an 8-7 win at No. 2 doubles. At No. 1 doubles,
Rebecca Lim and
Zoe Kava also played a spirited match against Erica Ekstrand and Yuu Ishikawa but were topped 8-6 to put the Ephs (3-0, 1-0 New England Small College Athletic Conference) up going into singles.
Williams would take a 3-1 lead in the match after Annabelle Siegel knocked off
Sophie Wax in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0, but the Jumbos came right back with an important win by
Zoe Kava with a 6-3, 6-4 win. At No. 6, sophomore
Nikki Kintiroglou won her first set 6-3, but Ananya Aggarwal responded with back-to-back 6-1, 6-1 wins to put the Ephs within one match of taking the team victory.
The Jumbos wouldn't go away though as sophomore
Lucy Mitchell fell in her first set to Mia Thomann, but erased the deficit and clawed all the way back to take a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 win to make it 4-3. The winning point though would come next for Williams, as Ishikawa knocked off Lim 7-5, 7-6 to clinch the victory for the Ephs.
In the final match to finish, Hu would rally from a set down to outlast Jane Ladaga 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 to finish the match scoring.
The Jumbos will now head to No. 4 Middlebury College for another NESCAC battle Sunday at 10 a.m. up in Middlebury, VT.
--JUMBOS--
