SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – In the final competition of the fall season, the Wesleyan women's tennis team saw
Kristina Yu '22 and
Sasha Gaeth '23 finish as the runner-up at the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament (NEWITT), a three-day tournament hosted between Amherst and Smith over the weekend.
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The unique tournament features two to three player teams from each school. The teams will then battle one another in a best 2-of-3 competition with one doubles match followed by two singles matches, if necessary, to determine which side will advance.
Wesleyan fielded two teams for this competition: Yu and Gaeth along with a team of
Sarah Youngberg '26,
Nika Vesely '25 and
Katie Fleischman '23.
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The tournament run for Yu and Gaeth began with a 3-0 victory over MIT in the round of 16 as Yu and Gaeth teamed up for an 8-6 win over Alaina Kolli and Yuka Perera in the doubles portion before scoring a pair of thrilling three-set singles win. Yu defeated Kolli 6-4, 1-6, 12-10 while Gaeth took down Sara Fernandez 3-6, 6-2, 11-9.
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In the quarterfinals, Yu and Gaeth took down Isabella Hartman and Josephine Kimball of Trinity in convincing fashion. The Cardinal duo won the doubles point 8-1 before earning straight set wins in singles play.
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Facing off against MIT's top team in the semifinals, the Cardinals came out on top with Yu defeating Sarah Pertsemlidis with a 4-6, 6-1, 10-6 come-from-behind win. Gaeth lost her singels match to Jessica Lu, setting up a crucial doubles point where the Cardinals prevailed via an 8-4 win.
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Appearing in the finals against Olivia Soffer and Matia Cristiani of Babson, the Beavers proved just too much in the singles portion to overcome a loss to Yu and Gaeth in doubles play. Wesleyan's squad took down Soffer and Cristiani 8-5 in doubles but fell in straight sets in both singles matches to take a runner-up finish in the event.
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The Youngberg/Vesely/Fleischman team defeated Colby's Sam Riordan and Isabella Suk in the round of 16 before falling to Middlebury's Sahana Raman and Lulu Wu in the quarterfinals.
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This tournament concludes the fall season for the women's tennis team as the Cardinals will resume play with the dual match spring season in March.