By Simmons College Athletics

First-year Ashley Chen won a pair of matches on the day to lead the Simmons College women’s tennis team to a 6-3 victory over host Suffolk University in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference match Sunday afternoon at Buckingham, Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge, Mass.

The Sharks won their third straight match to improve to 4-4 over
all and a perfect 3-0 in league play to extend their regular-season conference win streak to 55 in a row, while the Rams fell to 5-3 and 1-1.

Simmons won two of three in doubles play to take a 2-1 lead. The Sharks made a statement at number one doubles as junior Theresa Reinhard (4-2 singles, 7-1 doubles) and senior Meg Cokely (4-2 singles, 7-1 doubles) combined to defeat the Suffolk duo of junior Aidiana Sagyndykova and senior Rebecca Eshoo with a convincing 8-0 showing.

Chen (4-4 singles, 4-4 doubles) paired with sophomore Mary Matthews (0-2 singles, 2-4 doubles) to grind out a 9-7 win for Simmons at number three doubles over senior Lyndsay Rice and sophomore Isabel Rathlev to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead.

The Rams cut the lead in half with a 9-7 victory at second doubles as the duo of sophomore Valentina Medina and senior Abby Trigilio defeated seniors Katie Crowley (4-3 singles, 3-4 doubles) and Rachael Downey (3-4 singles, 2-5 doubles).

Junior Ashley Pierce (4-2 singles, 3-1 doubles) fought to a three-set win at sixth singles to give Simmons a 3-1 margin, winning the first set 6-0, before Suffolk first-year Elena Cisneros came back to take the second set, 6-0. Pierce gathered herself to win the third set, 6-2 for the match victory. Crowley won at third singles for the Sharks over Eshoo, 6-0, 6-2, before Downey dropped just one game to claim the decisive dual match point for Simmons with a triumph at number four singles over Trigilio, 6-0, 6-1, to give the visitors a 5-1 cushion.

The Rams got a point back with a win at second singles when Medina came back after dropping the first set to Cokely, 7-6, to win the second and third sets, 6-3, 10-6, respectively. Chen increased the Sharks advantage to 6-2 vs. Rathlev with a 6-2, 6-0 decision at fifth singles.

Sagyndykova and Reinhard played the most spirited singles match of the afternoon at number one. Sagyndykova pulled out the match in three sets, winning the first frame, 7-5, before Reinhard was able to break her serve multiple times for a 6-0 win in the second, but she rebounded to win the final set for Suffolk, 7-6 (6) for the win to set the final dual match score at 6-3.

Simmons returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 3 when it travels to Waterville, Maine, to play Colby College at 1 p.m., while the Rams head to Springfield, Mass. today, Thursday, Oct. 1, to play Springfield College at 4 p.m.