W. Tennis Rains on Sunshine State, Toppling No. 14 Miami and FIU

The No. 35 Harvard women’s tennis team did more than just escape the blizzard by flying to Florida for the second time this semester. With decisive 6-1 and 7-0 victories over No. 14 Miami and No. 64 Florida International, respectively, over the weekend, the Crimson (4-1) posted its third and fourth wins over ranked opponents after just three weeks of spring competition.

The victorious weekend was satisfying enough for Harvard not to mind an overnight layover in Charlotte, N.C., because of the snow.

“We’ll take a win,” sophomore Alexis Martire said. “We did really well this weekend, and it was definitely worth the trip. Overall it was an amazing weekend.”

Because the Hurricanes entered the matchup riding a 12-match winning streak and accustomed to the humid conditions on their home court, they rolled into play heavily favored. These circumstances made the Crimson upset even more impressive than its 4-3 win over No. 15 Washington last weekend.

Harvard claimed the doubles point by winning in the first and second spots. But freshman Melissa Anderson’s 6-3, 6-2 loss at No. 6 singles tied the score at one.

The Crimson stormed back with a sweep of the top five singles matches, including come-from-behind wins by No. 19 Courtney Bergman at No. 1 and No. 53 Martire at No. 3.

“[Miami] was so much tougher [than Florida International],” captain Sanja Bajin said. “We had two three-set matches, and the doubles were really close. It showed so much about our team’s willingness to fight.”

Martire surrendered the first set of her match 6-0, but the sophomore pulled out the final two sets 6-2, 6-2.

“It was a good battle,” Martire said. “I played well and fought hard.”

In markedly different conditions, the Crimson struggled with the sun and wind to sweep its match last Friday.

“FIU was a tough match because the girls we played were grinders and hit everything back,” Bajin said. “We weren’t used to the wind, but everyone pulled it out.”

Harvard proved why its ranking will certainly jump this week with its blanking of the Golden Panthers.

“We were the aggressors,” Bajin said. “Most of them just retrieved our shots.”

Though the No. 31 sophomore pairing of Bergman and Susanna Lingman dropped its match at No. 1 doubles, 8-4, the No. 39 freshmen duo of Eva Wang and Anderson picked up an easy 8-1 win. The Crimson secured the doubles point when No. 44 Bajin-Martire won 8-6.

The first five Harvard singles players jumped out to one-set leads in their matches, though Martire, Bajin and Anderson were pushed to the limit in the Crimson shutout.

After traveling to Florida twice and Minnesota already this year, Harvard finally gets a weekend at home when it faces Boston University on Saturday.

“The weekend was very long and stressful,” Bajin said. “We all have a lot of work to do with the semester starting, but it was good to get away and beat some really good teams.”The Crimson won’t have time to get comfortable at home, since its hectic schedule dictates a return to North Carolina the following weekend to face Old Dominion and No. 5 UNC, the highest-ranked team Harvard will face this season.

—Staff writer Brenda E. Lee can be reached at belee@fas.harvard.edu.