FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Courtesy of Simmons Athletics Communications
BRUNSWICK, Maine - Juniors Meg Cokely (Haverhill, Mass.) and Katie Crowley(Reading, Mass.) were both double winners to lead the Simmons College women's tennis team to a 6-0 victory over Plymouth State University this afternoon in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament at Pickard Courts on the campus of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. The Sharks improve to 17-4 on the season to extend their school record for wins, while the Panthers suffer their first loss of the year and finish the season at 14-1.
Simmons advances to the Second Round for the second straight year and will play Middlebury College, which earned a first round bye, tomorrow at Pickard Courts at 2:30 p.m.
The Sharks swept doubles play to take a 3-0 lead. Cokely (18-5 singles, 12-8 doubles) and sophomore Theresa Reinhard (Canton, Ohio) (11-11 singles, 14-7 doubles) teamed up to earn the day's first point at number one doubles for Simmons with an 8-2 win over junior Zara Jakubas (Califon, N.J.) and first year Sunny Jakubas (Califon, N.J.). The doubles win was the 39th of Cokely's career to move her into third on the career list for doubles wins at Simmons. The Sharks' duo of Crowley (16-6 singles, 17-6 doubles) and first year Han DK Le (Tra Vinh, Vietnam/Matignon HS (Mass.))(16-5 singles, 14-2 doubles) gave them a 2-0 lead with an 8-1 triumph at third doubles over Plymouth senior Rosalie DiRado (Gansevoort, N.Y.) and sophomore Rachel Gustafson (Belchertown, Mass.). The pairing of juniors Rachael Downey (Groveland, Mass.) (7-11 singles, 15-8 doubles) and Caroline Khoury(Portsmouth, Ohio) (7-8 singles, 12-7 doubles) completed the Simmons sweep with an 8-4 finish on court two over the Panthers' duo of junior Nitsa Ioannides (El Cajon, Calif.) and sophomore Nikki Lund (Hingham, Mass.).
Crowley did not drop a game in singles action for the fourth time this season to earn the Sharks' fourth point with a 6-0, 6-0 showing at fifth singles over DiRado. Cokely secured the dual match win for Simmons, winning the first set 6-4 at number two singles, before closing out the match with a 6-1 tally over Sunny Jakubas to give her 30 combined victories for the season. Le's match at sixth singles finished virtually at the same time as Cokely's with Le coming out on top over Plymouth junior Peyton Smith (Stuttgart, Germany), 6-1, 6-1.