Colby’s women’s tennis team hosted a slew of matches over Fall Break to wrap up the short fall season. The Mules fell to Wheaton College, 9-0, on Sunday, Oct. 9 before earning a split against the University of Southern Maine (USM) (9-0 win) and Simmons College (7-2 loss) on Monday.

Wheaton, the 11th-ranked team in the Northeast, defeated the 19th-ranked Mules in a rout. Mckenzie Love ’13 and Alex McAuliff ’13 dropped a tough decision at third doubles, 9-8 (7) as Colby was swept in doubles play. First-year Erica Talamo won her first set at sixth singles but couldn’t hold on as she fell in a third set super-tiebreaker, 2-6, 7-5, 11-9.

At Sunday’s 9 a.m. match versus USM, Colby swept doubles play with relative ease. Tess Perese ’14 and Sarah Wiener ’13 (first doubles, 8-3), Kathryn Vergeyle ’12 and Victoria Abel ’14 (second doubles, 8-1) and Love and McAuliff (third doubles, 8-1) made life easy for acting coach Jim Begin ’67, as head coach Doanh Wang was traveling with the men’s team. Needing just two singles victories to pull out the win, the Mules played their top two singles players, Perese and Wiener, at first and second singles, respectively, before turning to a foursome of first-years at third through sixth singles. All six Mules were victorious: Perese 6-0, 6-2 at first singles; Wiener 7-5, 6-2 at second; Talamo 6-3, 6-2 at third; Meredith Zakon ’15 6-4, 6-0 at fourth; Danielle Levine ’15 6-2, 6-4 at fifth; and Katherine Kyrios ’15 at sixth.

The 7-2 score in the loss against Simmons belies how close the match indeed was. Love and McAuliff took another win at third doubles, 8-4, and Talamo was victorious at sixth singles, 6-3, 7-5. The Mules lost the other seven matches, but both doubles teams fell just 8-5 (one break of serve), and both Wiener and Abel lost tough three-setters. With a couple of breaks the other way, Colby could have prevailed 6-3.

The alumni match this past weekend marked the end of the fall season for both the men’s and women’s teams. Begin, Nick Rosen-Wachs ’09, Bobby Post ’11, Audrey Jacobson ’10, Tara Davidson ’10, Katie Brezinski ’11, Katie Muto ’11 and Hilana Bernheimer ’10 were among the alumni present.