Carlson, Iyengar Finish Unbeaten to Highlight Play at Swarthmore Invitational

SWARTHMORE, Pa. - The Swarthmore College women's tennis team opened its fall season with a strong performance against Haverford and Stevens Institute of Technology at the annual Swarthmore Invitational over the weekend.

Two players, sophomore Lia Carlson and freshman Gayatri Iyengar finished undefeated for the weekend to highlight play Senior Rosie Dubrin, junior Stephanie Chia, and sophomores Epiphany English and Brooke Wilkins all picked up multiple wins in both singles and doubles play.

On the first day of competition, Carlson's and Iyengar's first matches included a riveting 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (17-15) win for Carlson against Stevens Tech's Jessica Borque and a tight 7-5, 6-4 win for Iyengar over Stevens Tech's Lisa Tessitore.

In other singles action, English and Chia succeeded in both of their matches and both Wilkins and Dubrin split their first two singles encounters against the opposing teams.

The highlight of the first day was the Garnet's overall success in doubles, as the team finished with a 5-1 record between all of the pairs. All three doubles teams earned convincing wins, including 9-7 and 8-1 wins over Stevens Tech and Haverford for Carlson and Dubrin, 8-5 and 8-3 wins, also over Stevens Tech and Haverford, respectively, for Iyengar and Wilkins, and an 8-5 win for Chia and English over Stevens Tech.

On the second day of play, Carlson and Iyengar both won their two singles matches versus Haverford and Stevens Tech, while Dubrin, Chia, and English each earned singles wins for the Garnet.

The Swarthmore women had another great day in doubles as Chia/English scored a solid 8-1 victory against Haverford's Andrson/Flynn. Carlson/Dubrin also beat Haverford's Anderson/Flynn 8-3 and Stephens Tech's Portner/Bese 8-2, while Iyengar/Wilkins took down teams from both Stephens Tech and Haverford, 8-2 and 8-0, respectively. Both Dubrin/Carlson and Wilkins/Iyengar finished undefeated in doubles for the weekend.

The Garnet now has two weeks to prepare for the culminating event of their fall season, the ITA Regional Tournament, which begins on September 24.