W. Tennis Pair Shines at Penn

With a victory in the doubles tournament in the Cissie Leary Invitational at the University of Pennsylvania, sophomores Susanna Lingman and Courtney Bergman of the Harvard women’s tennis team opened their season in dominant form.

Lingman and Bergman, seeded second in the 26-entry bracket, won the doubles title, defeating Penn State 8-4 in the finals.

‘‘The first round was pretty tough, we started off slow,’’ Bergman said of the pair’s 8-7 edging of an Ohio State duo. ‘‘But overall it was a good way to start off the season and a nice warm-up for [the ITA All-American Championships].”

Commencing their college careers, the freshman duo of Melissa Anderson and Eva Wong fared well, reaching the third round of the doubles tournament, losing to eventual finalist Penn State.

‘‘I was pretty pleased with my first tournament, happy to get in all the matches,’’ Anderson said. “Each game was really close.’’

As a result of an uneven number of Crimson doubles players, team captain Sanja Bajin was paired with Brown freshman Yelena Klurfield. Lack of familiarity proved a disadvantage as the pair lost in the first round to Temple, 8-5.

In singles play, Anderson continued her strong performance, reaching the quarterfinals. Wang lost in three sets, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, to ultimate finalist Julie Smekodub of Tulane.

‘‘I didn’t know any of my opponents,’’ Wang said. “Each round the competition got better.’’

Lingman reached the singles quarterfinals but lost 6-4, 7-5 to Danira Penic of Temple.

‘‘Penic really played well, I didn’t put my game together,” Lingman said. “Obviously my performance was not as good as I wanted but I’m looking at it as a learning experience.’’

The other half of the women’s team competed in the Princeton Invitational.

Freshman Alli Pillinger won the A-1 flight of the singles while sophomore Ashley Hyotte reached the A-2 semifinals.

The team’s performance left Hyotte confident and eager about the season.

‘‘We have a really strong team this year and as long as everyone stays healthy we should be good,’’ said Hyotte. “Looking at how people are playing now, we should probably win the Ivies this year.’’

Harvard’s top-ranked players will be going to California this week to compete at the ITA All-American Championships, the first of the three college national championships each season. The Crimson has three nationally-ranked singles players—No. 29 Bergman, No. 56 Alexis Martire and No. 57 Lingman—who have earned berths in the tournament’s qualifying draw.

—Contributing writer Peter J. Del Busto can be reached at delbusto@fas.harvard.edu