Box Score BOSTON, Mass. - The Smith College tennis team shouldered an 8-1 loss to Emerson in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action Saturday. Smith is now 0-9 on the season and 0-4 in league action.

QUOTES FROM THE COACH

#3 Doubles: Yena Li (Shenzhen, China/Stoneleigh-Burnham School) and Betsy Hillier (Cohasset, Mass./Concord Academy) got out to a 4-1 lead to kick off their doubles match. They were outlasting their opponents from the baseline. Their opponents increased their level of play and started looking for opportunities to end the point at net. Betsy and Yena lost their lead and were down 7-6 with their opponents serving for the match. Betsy and Yena played a great game and broke to force a set tie-break. Unfortunately, they couldn't hold onto the momentum and dropped their match 8-7 (7-4)

#1 singles: After dropping the first set, Allison Ahern (Minneapolis, Minn./The Blake School) upped her level of play. She started to extend her rallies from the baseline forcing her opponent to make errors. Allison showed great composure to come back from a 6-1 loss in the first to jump a head to a 4-3 lead in the second. However, she was unable to hold onto her lead and dropped the second 6-4. 

#4 singles Yena LI  6-7 (7-5), 6-4, 10-5 - Yena had a marathon match lasting well over two hours. Her and her opponent were relentless from the baseline, chasing down every ball. Yena managed to outlast her opponent and secured the set 7-5 in a tie-break. The two continued to battle in the second. Yena used her slice well to get her opponent out of position and open up the court. Flores-Barber looked to come to net more to counter, but Yena responded by hitting lobs just out of her reach. However, it wasn't enough and Flores-Barber won the second pushing the third to a match tie-break. In the tie-break, Flores-Barber jumped ahead to a quick lead going up 9-4. Yena was able to save one match point before dropping the set 10-5. 

#3. Singles: Elsa Hillis (Georgetown, Tex./Georgetown) came out with great energy in her singles match jumping to a quick 4-1 lead. She was moving her opponent off the court and found her chances to come to net and finish the point. Her opponent started to come back forcing a first set tie-break. Elsa looked to maintain her aggressive style of play, but a few too many errors gave her opponent the one set lead. Her opponent jumped out to a quick lead in the second. late in the second, Elsa upped her level of play and moved the ball around aggressively from the baseline. However she was unable to mount a comeback and dropped the second 6-1. 

#6 Singles: Betsy secured her first college match win. Betsy jumped out to a quick lead in her first set by frustrating her opponent with her consistency. Betsy did a great job of reading her opponent. As Burns looked to come to net more, Betsy responded by lobbing the ball out of her reach and hit the occasional passing shot for a winner. Betsy, who usually likes to have one of the longer matches of the day won swiftly in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. 

UP NEXT
Smith hosts Clark on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.

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