Crimson Tennis Teams Dominate; Men Upset No. 12 VCU

The Harvard women's tennis team faced off against Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon, and as expected dismissed them with ease.

Behind the dominating performance of junior Ivy Wang, the 18th-ranked Crimson cruised to an 8-1 victory over a relatively weak Oklahoma State squad, improving its record on the year to 7-3.

"We knew that Oklahoma State was not very strong," Wang said. "So we just wanted to go out there, take care of business and get the win."

Wang, who is currently ranked 23rd individually in the country, easily defeated OSU's Martina Hautova, 6-0, 6-3, to pace the Crimson.

Harvard also earned straight set singles victories from co-captain Rosemary She, sophomores Vedica Jain and Aparna Ravi, as well as from freshman Sanaz Ghazal, to enter the doubles matches with a commanding 5-1 lead.

In doubles competition the Crimson continued to dominate OSU. The teams of Hricko and Jain, and Ghazal and sophomore Kristin Flink, picked up 8-5 and 8-4 wins, respectively, to close out the meet.

The victory against OSU comes on the heels of a tough road trip for Harvard. Last weekend the Crimson squeezed out a surprisingly close 5-4 win against UNC-Charlotte, but were dealt a 9-0 loss at the hands of third ranked Duke.

Now Harvard will look to build on this weekend's strong showing and the experience gained from facing the highly ranked Blue Devils on the road, as it prepares to go to California for its most difficult road trip of the year.

"We definitely learned a lot from our loss to Duke that can help us get ready for the road trip," She said. "Playing such a highly ranked team will let us know what to expect from those teams out in California."

For this trip, which will run through spring break, the Crimson will head out West to face the likes of Cal-Berkeley, Pepperdine, Fresno St., USC and Stanford. With four of these teams ranked among the top 15 in the country, including top-five Stanford, the Crimson look to open some eyes and gain some national recognition.

Although the Crimson is excited to be heading out of sunny California for spring break, it knows it is in for a tough week. Even with many difficult matches looming, however, Harvard is confident that it will perform well.

"We're psyched about going to California, but we know that it's a tough schedule against some very good teams," Wang said. "It's a really good opportunity to get some big wins against strong teams, and if we practice hard and play well, we know that we can beat some of them."