Lauren Hernandez teamed with Hannah Sweeney to win at No. 2 doubles, and she scored Bates' lone singles point in a 6-3 loss at Colby on April 24, 2018. (File photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

WATERVILLE, Maine -- No. 40 nationally ranked Colby clawed its way to a 6-3 NESCAC victory over the No. 27 Bates women's tennis team on Tuesday, with all six singles matches hotly contested.

Bates (9-8, 3-4 NESCAC) concludes the regular season at home on Thursday against its other Maine NESCAC rival, Bowdoin, starting at 4pm.

Colby (9-6, 3-5 NESCAC) won five of six singles matches after the Bobcats took a 2-1 lead through doubles play.

Senior captain Maisie Silverman (Brunswick, Maine) and junior Bella Stone (Concord, Mass.) posted an 8-2 defeat of Colby's Lydia Venditti and Jessica Tsai at No. 1 doubles, while first-year Hannah Sweeney (Franklin, Mass.) and sophomore Lauren Hernandez (Chester, N.J.) downed Gabby Venditti and Callie Nesbitt 8-3. Sophomore Suzanne Elfman (Longmeadow, Mass.) and first-year Haley Washington (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) took Colby's Jamie Pine and Maddie Lupone to a tiebreaker before surrendering the third doubles point to the Mules.

Hernandez scored Bates' lone point in singles, despite tough matches taking place up and down the lineup. Hernandez defeated Lupone 7-5, 6-3 at No. 5 singles. The host Mules took the top three singles battles in three sets, clinching the victory with Gabby Venditti's 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Sweeney at No. 2. Stone fought Nesbitt to a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 decision at No. 3 singles, and Silverman fell to Lydia Venditti 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 at No. 1 after Colby had secured the win. Elfman fell 6-4, 6-4 at No. 4 to Tsai, while Washington also went an action-packed three sets at No. 6 singles, falling to Isha Banerjee 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.