AMHERST, Mass. – Competing in her first career NESCAC Tournament,
Jackie Soloveychik '27 proved up to the moment as the first-year won the clinching point in a second set tiebreaker, helping lead the top-seed Wesleyan women's tennis team past four-seed Williams 5-3 in the NESCAC Semifinal round on Saturday from Amherst College. The Cardinals (17-0) will go for a fifth straight NESCAC Championship on Sunday against the three-seed and host Amherst (14-5).
Wesleyan came close to sweeping all three doubles points, as the Cardinals earned wins at #1 and #2 before losing 7-5 in a tiebreaker at #3.
Leila Epstein '26 and Soloveychik combined for an 8-6 win at #2 over Mia Thomann and Ahn Lin before
Caitlyn Ferrante '24 and
Sarah Youngberg '26 finished off a convincing 8-3 win at #1 over Erica Ekstrand and Yuu Ishikawa. The #3 doubles match saw
Renna Mohsen-Breen '25 and
Lane Durkin '27 go into a tiebreak with Annabelle Siegel and Jane Ladaga, which was won 8-7 (7-5) by the Ephs, as the score was 2-1 Wesleyan heading into singles.
It was 4-1 Cardinals after Durkin closed out a 6-3, 6-1 straight set win at #5 over Thomann while Youngberg followed with a 6-2, 6-3 triumph at #2 over Ishikawa. The Ephs, however, rallied back with a straight set win from Siegel over Epstein at #3 (6-2, 6-4) while Ekstrand defeated Ferrante 6-1, 6-4 at #1 to close the gap in team scores to 4-3.
Soloveychik won the first set 6-4 in her match at #4 against Ananya Aggarwal, and in the second set tiebreak, the first-year showed no signs of nerve as she earned a 7-4 match-clinching second set tiebreak win to seal the match and title berth for the Cardinals.
Concurrently on the remaining singles court, Mohsen-Breen had battled to a 6-4 second set win after dropping the first set 6-4 to Margaux Molyneux. Their match at #6 went unfinished at 1-1 in the third set as Soloveychik's clincher finished off the win.
Wesleyan goes for a fifth straight NESCAC Championship on Sunday and will do so for the first time in a title match against an opponent that isn't Middlebury. The Mammoths upset the Panthers 5-4 in the Semifinal round as the two Little Three rivals open play at 1 PM on Sunday. Wesleyan defeated the Mammoths 9-0 in the regular season back on March 9 at Amherst in a match that was much closer than the score would indicate as the Cardinals won two doubles matches and two singles matches that required a tiebreaker to decide the match.
