Women's Tennis Drops 8-1 Little East Decision to UMass Boston

BOSTON, Mass. – The UMass Boston women's tennis team posted an 8-1 victory over visiting Bridgewater State University in a Little East Conference (LEC) match on Tuesday afternoon at the BC High Tennis Courts.

The Beacons improve to 4-0 on the season and 3-0 in the Little East, while the Bears fall to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in conference play.

UMass captured two out of three doubles matches and swept the six singles flight.

In doubles play, juniors Yana Semerly (Okemos, Mich.) and Lydia Chan (Quincy, Mass.) earned at 8-4 win at number one, while freshman Ayra Shaikh (Weymouth, Mass.) and sophomore Ayonna Stuppard (Randolph, Mass.) posted an 8-6 decision at the second flight.

The Bears lone point of the match came at number three doubles as graduate student Vanessa Rosa (Taunton, Mass.) and sophomore Meghan Lotti (Stoneham, Mass.) teamed up for an 8-5 victory. Rosa was making her season debut.

Semerly, Chan, Shaikh and Stuppard added straight set wins for the Beacons in singles play at the first (6-3, 6-4), second (6-3, 6-0), third (6-1, 6-0) and fifth (6-3, 6-1) flights, respectively.

Sophomore Elena Albano (Haverhill, Mass.) outlasted Rosa at fourth singles, 6-2, 3-6, 10-6, and senior Lia Vassiliadis (Weymouth, Mass.) battled back from set down to edge Lotti at number six, 2-6, 6-4, 10-5.

In upcoming action, the Bears entertain Little East foe UMass Dartmouth on Saturday at noon, while the Beacons travel to Roger Williams University on Thursday afternoon to take on the Hawks at four.

Notes: After having lost 14 straight matches to the Bears between 2005 and 2018, the Beacons have now won two of the last three.