DUDLEY, Mass. – The Nichols College women’s tennis team opened its The Commonwealth Coast Conference schedule with a 9-0 victory over Curry Saturday afternoon at the Francis W. Robinson Courts. The win reinforced the Bison’s selection as the top pick in the TCCC Preseason Coaches’ Poll where Nichols received six of 11 first-place votes. Nichols improves to 2-0 (1-0 TCCC) on the year while Curry dips to 1-1 (0-1 TCCC).
Emily Mongello (Milton, Mass.) and Lauren Cuhua (Reading, Mass.) gave Nichols’ top doubles pair of Jillian McQuiggan (Weymouth, Mass.) and Chelsey Miller (Salem, Conn.) a close match at 8-5, but Nichols walked away with 8-4 and 8-3 victories at the second and third flights.
Nichols easily swept the singles side, highlighted by a 6-0, 6-0 win from McQuiggan at the second flight. Curry’s Kathleen Rush (Waterbury, Conn.) took the first set from Maria Balabanova (Moscow, Russia) at the fifth spot before the Nichols senior rallied for 6-1 and 6-3 wins in the second and third sets. Bison first year Anna Dyakiv (Amsterdam, N.Y.) was stellar in her conference debut with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Megan Mulrooney (South Boston, Mass.) at the top flight.
Nichols is back in action on Tuesday in a 3:30 p.m. TCCC match at Endicott for a rematch of last year’s conference semifinals. Curry hosts Wentworth Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. for a conference tilt.
Courtesy of Nichols Sports Information