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Date: October 20, 2002
Contact: Bill Sodoma

 

Colby doubles team makes title match

AMHERST, Mass. --

The Colby College doubles team of senior Britt Palmedo (Deerfield/Ketchum, Idaho) and sophomore Sara Hughes (Burlington/South Burlington, Vt.) beat the second seed and the fourth seed, but lost a tough match to the top-seeded team from Amherst in the first doubles championship match at the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament (NEWITT) on Sunday.

Palmedo and Hughes were unseeded heading into tournament play, but came away with some big upsets. The two took a surprisingly easy 8-3 victory over Bowdoin's fourth-seeded team of Alexis Bawden and Paulette Hricko in a quarterfinal match. Bawden and Hricko had taken an 8-3 win over the Colby team on October 9.

Palmedo and Hughes then posted their biggest victory with an 8-6 win against the second-seeded team of Caroline Wasserman and Steph Hall from Williams in a semifinal match. The Colby pair fell 8-6 to Amherst's Rachel Holt and Tristan Hedrick in the championship match.

The weekend got off to a good start for Palmedo and Hughes in their first two matches. They recorded an easy 8-0 victory over an Endicott team in the first round and then won 8-1 over a doubles team from Wheaton in the second round.

At second doubles, Caren Harris (Germantown/Fairview Village, Pa.) and Christina Pluta (Mercer/Mercer Island, Wash.) fell 8-4 to the top-seeded team from Amherst in the quarterfinals.

After a bye in the first round, Harris and Pluta won 8-3 over a team from Mount Holoyke.

Paige Hanzlik (Hinsdale/Oak Brook, Ill.) and Ginny Raho (Lincoln School/Providence, R.I.) got a bye to the second round in third doubles before losing 8-2 to a team from Babson.

In singles play, Hughes took a 6-1, 6-0 opening round victory over Salve Regina's Meg Demichiel. Hughes then fell 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) in the second round to fourth-seeded Wasserman from Williams. Palmedo also got past the first round with a 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, (10-2) victory over Smith College's Ashley Kilgore in second singles, but she then lost 6-3, 6-0 to Bowdoin's Hricko in the second round. Harris got to the second round as well with a 6-1, 6-1 win against Salve Regina's Katie Wright.

Harris then lost 7-5, 6-2 to Babson's Fran Russo, the fourth seed in third singles. Pluta, Hanzlik and Raho all lost in their first round singles matches. Pluta had the closest match of the three, falling 6-2, 2-6, (10-7) to Bowdoin's Kristina Sisk in fourth singles play.