BRIGHTON, Mass. – Simmons tennis (5-4, 2-1 GNAC) snapped a three-game skid with a convincing 8-1 victory over the University of St. Joseph (Conn.) in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action, Saturday afternoon.

The Blue Jays began the day with Kathleen Gilland and Emily Kerr defeating Olga Zhizhin and Avery Halloran in first doubles, 8-1. However, the Sharks third doubles tandem of junior Sara Fucillo and senior Mary Miller evened up doubles with an 8-5 win over Julia Michud and Bernae Webb.

With doubles tied at one, it came down to second doubles. First-year Annabelle Halloran and senior Libby Weed saved four match points to claim the 8-7 (10-8) to give the Sharks the 2-1 lead heading into singles.  

The Sharks swept the singles portion of the competition, 6-0. Annabelle Halloran won her third singles victory of the season, defeating Ananya Srivatsav in two sets (6-1, 6-2) in fourth singles, while Weed secured the victory following a two-set, 6-2, 6-2, win in third singles.

Sophomore Avery Halloran moved back to .500 in singles, improving to 4-4, following a two-set (6-4, 6-4) win over Julia Michaud. Emily Lopez earned the two-set win over Bernae Webb in sixth singles.  

The top two spots of the lineup were grueling long matches, both going three sets. Junior Olga Zhizhin took a 1-0 match advantage over Kathleen Gilland with a 6-3 win in the first se. Gilland stormed back to even the match with 6-4 win in the second set, before Zhizhin won the third in an 11-9 tiebreaker.

Second singles was very similar to first singles. Camargo won the first set over Emily Kerr, 6-3, but dropped the second, 6-4, before edging out her Blue Jays' counterpart, 6-4, in the third set.  

UP NEXT
Simmons returns to the courts on Wednesday, September 28 when travel to Quincy, Massachusetts for a 3 p.m. tilt against Eastern Nazarene College.