The UMass women’s tennis team won a hard fought contest last Saturday over Western Connecticut 5-4, despite the absence of two key players. The victory improved the Beacon’s record to 5-1.

The competition began with the doubles matches. The pair of Katerina Tassiopoulos and Kristen Pels made relatively quick work of WCSU’s Melissa Walsh and Jennessa Perugine, with a 8-2 set victory. Sabine Van Vlerken and Christine Hortick went down in their match 8-3. The duo of Tomoko Tabuchi and Alrette Peters played the most tightly contested of the doubles matches. After having taken a 4-1 lead in the match, Tabuchi and Peters soon found themselves in a 6-6 tie. However, the two Beacons took 3 of the next 4 games and claimed a 9-7 victory.

In the singles matches, UMB and WCSU split 3-3. Blanka Stratford, Pels, and Hortick grabbed victories in two set wins. Van Vlerken and Peters were not so fortunate in their matches, each losing in two sets. Tabuchi played a hard fought match against Alison Healey, at times dropping some beautiful baseline shots, but the Beacon ended up losing the tough match.