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The Brandeis University women's tennis team had a successful last weekend at the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament.
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Facing opposition from schools like Mount Holyoke College, Trinity College, Tufts University, and Amherst College and Middlebury College, the Judges were able to get some valuable experience in concluding their fall season. 
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"It was a good weekend and a great event for us to get some good experience," said women's tennis coach Ben Lamanna. "We're looking to improve our doubles work because that is a big part of our game, but we showed some good signs this weekend."
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The Judges entered five teams of two players. Each team completed a doubles match, which is one eight-game set and two individual singles matches, best two out of three. In the singles matches, athletes played two sets, and if it was split a 10-point super-tiebreaker decided the winner. The tournament was also single elimination with a consolation round. In the consolation round, the singles matches were decided by one eight-game pro set. 
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In the first round, duo Simone Vandroff '15 and Maya Vasser '16 handily defeated Bayla Weick and Haruka Shimoto of Smith College: they won their doubles match 8-5, while individually, Vandroff defeated Weick 6-1 4-6 10-4, and Vasser mightily won 6-0 6-2. Alexa Katz '14 and Sarita Biswas '16 also made quick work of a team from Smith College: they shutout their opponents in doubles. They won both of their singles matches and Biswas conceded only one game in the second set of her 6-0 6-1 blow out. The Judges' number one seed, Carley Cooke '15 and Allyson Bernstein '14, were upset by Tufts in a close and thrilling match. Having won a tight doubles match 8-6, Cooke and Bernstein each split sets with their opponents and wound up losing in tiebreakers.
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"[Cooke] was the first All-American in Brandeis women's tennis history, so the expectations for her have been pretty high coming into the season," said Lamanna. "However, she came around towards the end of the tournament and started playing really well."
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In the second round, Katz and Biswas continued their success, beating the Mount Holyoke team of Margaux Holloschutz and My-Linh Nguyen 3-0. Although their victory required more of a fight, they still pulled through, winning their doubles match 8-4 and their individual matches 6-2 7-5 and 2-6 7-5 10-8, respectively. Vandroff and Vasser played an exciting second-round match, but eventually lost to a combo from Tufts and Williams. After winning their doubles match 9-8, both Vandroff and Vassar lost their singles matches 8-3 and 8-6, respectively.
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Katz and Biswas were the only team to make it to the quarterfinals. There, the pair of Judges was swept by Trinity College juniors Elizabeth Gerber and Taylor Wilkins, losing the doubles match 8-2 and the singles matches 7-5 6-3 and 6-1 6-0.
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Meanwhile, in the consolation round, Cooke and Bernstein defeated freshmen Maddy Sung and Rebecca Pol from Amherst in doubles 8-5 and 6-1 6-3 and 7-5 6-2, respectively, after a walkover in the opening consolation round by Salve Regina. They advanced to the semifinals of the consolation round, but fell to Dorrie Paradies and Sarah Macy from Middlebury.  Middlebury's duo won the doubles match 8-5, while Cooke defeated Paradies 8-2 and Bernstein lost to Macy 8-4.
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Lamanna lamented the loss of captain Faith Broderick '13, who missed the tournament due to injury. "She would have been [Cooke]'s doubles partner," he said. "She's a great captain and a great leader for our team."
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The women's tennis team has concluded its fall season and will resume its season at the Claremont Colleges on February 22, 2013.