Women's Tennis

Shattering a three-game losing streak, the Harvard women's tennis

team served up a 6-3 win over Boston College yesterday afternoon in its

first match since spring break.

After falling to No. 2 Pepperdine, No. 7 Southern California, and unranked San Diego last week, the Crimson regained some confidence by defeating the Eagles at Boston College. The victory is Harvard's second away win since the beginning of the second half of the season, and boosts the Crimson's road record to 4-8 on the year.

"It was an important game," sophomore Fleur Broughton said. "Everyone played some tough tennis today."

Despite a late surge by B.C. during the doubles matches, the Crimson held on to win the match, improving their record to 6-9. The Eagles drop to 4-7 with the loss.

With sophomore Andrea Magyera still sidelined by an injury, and freshman Sanja Bajin unavailable to play singles yesterday, Harvard was still able to turn in an impressive singles performance. The second through sixth players defeated their opponents, with only two of the matches pushed to three sets.

"This is definitely a good start going into this weekend," junior Sanaz Ghazal said. "It was a good challenge because we were missing two good players, but everyone stepped up to fill in the gaps."

Starting for Bajin in the top slot, Ghazal dropped No. 1 singles to B.C.'s Cindy Tow. Ghazal came close in the first set, losing in a close 6-4 match. Tow, who notched 38 singles victories last season and won the individual championship at the Harvard Invitational last year, sealed the win with a 6-1 second set.

The Crimson answered the early challenge by silencing the Eagles in the next five singles matches, and never relinquished its lead.

Captain Vedica Jain avenged Ghazal in the second seed, defeating Kiren Fernando in straight sets. Jain took the first set easily 6-2, and blanked Fernando 6-0 in the second.

Sophomore Jennie Timoney quickly followed suit, emerging victorious over Barbara Privrel 7-5 and 6-4, also in straight sets.

Once again, Broughton provided one of the most exciting matches of the day, taking her opponent to three sets before securing the win in the fourth seed. Broughton dug out a 7-6 victory in the first set, but stumbled in the second, losing to Eagles' co-Captain Mercedes del Valle 5-7. She regained her momentum in the final set, soundly defeating del Valle 6-2.

"I've been playing inconsistently lately, but I had a solid match today," Broughton said. "I've played [del Valle] several times, and they're close matches. But it was good to come out on top."

Harvard continued to dominate, as freshman Lara Naqushbandi handily defeated Eagles' co-Captain Kim Arbuckle in the No. 5 spot. Naqushbandi left Arbuckle scoreless in the first set, triumphing 6-0, and sealed the victory 6-2 in the second.

Sophomore Sara McGinty rounded out the singles action for the Crimson, outlasting Anisha Fernando in three sets. McGinty got off to a slow start as Fernando won the first set 5-7. However, McGinty rallied back to take the next two sets 6-3 and 6-0 for the win.

With five of the six singles matches under its belt, the Crimson was well on its way to victory. The Eagles started to launch a comeback by stealing the top two doubles matches, but could not hang on for the sweep.

Harvard broke up the monopoly with a definitive shutout in the final match of the day.

Even with Bajin, who has been one of the most consistent and successful members of the team this season, back in the lineup for doubles play, the duo of Ghazal and Bajin could not overcome the efforts of Tow and Karin Fernando, falling 8-5 in the No. 1 slot.

McGinty and Broughton, both of whom hung on to slim victories in singles, did not have the same luck on their side when they paired up for No. 2 doubles. The tandem of Privrel and del Valle escaped with a tight 8-6 victory.

Harvard redeemed itself in the third seed, as Timoney and Naqushbandi effortlessly routed the team of Jessica Engel and Ruta Veitas 8-0 in the final match of the day.

The Crimson's excellent performance over its cross-town rivals

bodes well for this weekend's matches. Columbia and Cornell will make the

trek to Cambridge to kick off Harvard's Ivy League season.

"It's good momentum going in to the start of the Ivy League season," Ghazal said. "We can't underestimate Columbia or Cornell. We've got to take care of business and continue to build momentum."