Smith had a great start in the conference tournament by beating MHC and moving to the semi-finals. They could not hold on bowing to Wheaton on the second day. Wheaton eventually won the conference title.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.
In the first semifinal, Smith College looked to upend regular-season conference winner Wheaton College. Coming off a quarterfinal match that ended late the prior evening and missing stars Holly Reich and Isabel Pal, the Pioneers were unable to match the Lyons on the court as they had done during the season.
Smith Downs Mount Holyoke, 5-3
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - MIT played host to the 2009 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Women's Tennis Championship. 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 second quarterfinal, Smith and Mount Holyoke played into the evening for the final spot at the semifinals. In doubles play, the #3 match featured Smith's Allyson Hawkins and Margaret Steiner battling Mount Holyoke's Sarah London and Carly Peltier to a 7-7 tie in the eight-game pro-set. Hawkins and Steiner held strong in the final two games to win [9-7] and together with their teammates, completed a sweep of doubles action to put the Pioneers up 3-0.
With the deficit, Mount Holyoke would need to win five of the six singles matches to rally and win. The Lyons' top two players, Nahree Han and Natalie Hsaing put their team in the mix by picking up two-set victories. In the #3 singles, Smith's Clair Oblamski took down Sarah Moore [6-1, 6-2] to advance the score to 4-2 and put the Pioneers in position for the killing blow.
At the #4 position, senior Lyon Sarah London kept the match alive with a win over Alanna Dick [6-2, 7-5] narrowing the lead to 4-3 and giving the #5 and #6 matches a chance to hit the courts. It was the #5 match that was the ultimate decider, as Smith's Hawkins was able to put away My-Linh Nguyen for the final point in the Pioneer's 5 3 victory
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