CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Brandeis University women's tennis team dropped their first match of the spring season today, falling to rival MIT on the road, 8-1.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis: 1-1, ranked #40 in Division III by ITA
• MIT: 1-0, ranked #6 in Division III by ITA

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Engineers took a 2-1 lead after doubles. MIT won, 8-0, at #2 and 8-4 at #3.
• The Judges used  a late break of serve at #1 as sophomore Bhakti Parwani (Ahmedabad, India/Kumkum School) and first-year Rebecca Suarez (Huntington, N.Y. / International Virtual Learning Academy, knocked off the team of Sarah Pertsemlidis and Jessica Lu, who are ranked #3 in the region and #10 in Division III, by an 8-6 score.
• In singles action, the Engineers swept the Judges, with the best match coming at #1, where Suarez and Pertsemlidis met again. Suarez took the first set off the top-ranked player in the Northeast and #2 in the nation, 6-4. Pertsemlidis bounced back to win the second set, 6-3, then took the super-tiebreaker, 10-6, to win the third set.
• The Judges also got a close match from two other first-years, as Nancy Zhang (Shanghai, China / Shanghai International Division) at #3 and Ella Chase (Lincoln, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury Regional) at #5 each won six games (6-3, 6-3 and 6-4, 6-2) from their Engineer opponents.

UP NEXT

• The Judges are back in action tomorrow morning at 11:45 a.m. when they travel to Division I Bryant University.