W. Tennis Almost Upsets No. 12 UNC

On Sunday, the Harvard women’s tennis team was twice on the brink of clinching a victory over No. 12 North Carolina, an NCAA quarterfinalist a year ago, but the Crimson could not finish the job. Though the 4-3 loss was heartbreaking for Harvard, now ranked No. 26 in the nation, the defeat was still another step towards the Crimson proving itself as one of the nation’s best.

“Honestly, I’m still pretty upset about it,” said sophomore No. 1 Courtney Bergman, 24 hours after the match was completed. “But you can look at it a couple ways. We just have to realize we’re right there with the top teams in the country. We definitely could have beaten them and should have.”

A day after cruising by Old Dominion 5-2 on Saturday, the Crimson jumped out to a quick start in singles against the Tar Heels. North Carolina took the doubles point, but Harvard captain Sanja Bajin and freshmen Eva Wang and Melissa Anderson each won in straight sets at the No. 4-6 slots to put Harvard ahead 3-1.

Harvard coach Gordon Graham said that depth has been a big advantage on this team compared to last season.

“Now we know we can get wins at any place,” he said. “Last year we knew we’d have to get them at Nos. 1, 2, and 3 pretty much against the good teams. Now you feel more confident. You have a lot of good players battling for each other.”

The quick victories left the match in the hands of the Crimson’s top three. Sophomore Susanna Lingman was the first to fall, losing in straight sets at the No. 2 spot.

At No. 3 singles, sophomore Alexis Martire, ranked No. 85 nationally, fell behind early 3-0 in her third set before she stormed back for a 5-4 lead and found herself serving for the match. But Martire’s opponent, No. 41 Aniela Mozjis, took the last three games and won the third set 7-5, tying the match, 3-3.

Martire’s defeat put all the pressure on Bergman, who entered her third set against North Carolina’s No. 14 Kate Pinchbeck, an All-American last season.

Bergman went up 4-2 early in the decisive set. Pinchbeck broke back to tie it 4-4, but the Crimson No. 1 broke Pinchbeck again. Bergman, like Martire, served for the match, but she fell behind early in the game and could not recover.

The Bergman-Pinchbeck duel ultimately came down to a third-set tiebreak. Pinchbeck, aided by a strong home crowd that had gathered to watch, once again jumped to a quick lead at 3-0. Bergman could not catch up and lost the tiebreaker 7-4, giving UNC the match, 4-3.

Bergman said she had lost long heartbreaking matches before but never one like on Sunday where the team’s fate came down to her.

“This is the first time it’s ever come down to where, I was the last court [to play], and I don’t know how long I was on the court but it seemed like forever,” she said.

It was a doubly disappointing weekend for Bergman and Martire at singles. They were the only two blemishes in the Old Dominion victory on Saturday as well. Martire dropped a close match in three sets, and Bergman suffered another heart-wrenching defeat—a match that came down to a 10-8 tiebreak against the No. 18 player in the nation. While Bergman’s defeat did not impact the team win, it would have been a boon to her national ranking, now at No. 36.

“I played my hardest and I tried my hardest—there’s nothing really else you can do,” Bergman said in reflection.

Had Harvard beaten North Carolina, it would have been another step forward after the Crimson’s dominant 6-1 victory over then-No. 14 Miami two weeks earlier. Graham said he could not recall whether Harvard had beaten a team ranked that high during his tenure.

The match gave Graham a reason to recollect the 1998 spring season when Harvard almost beat Stanford. The Cardinal was missing its top player but took Harvard for granted, and the Crimson lost just 5-4 in the pre-doubles point era.

Unlike 1998, in this match against North Carolina, both teams were giving their all.

“I think this a truer test of where we fit in than the team in the late 90s,” Graham said.

Right now Harvard is looking good in the national and the Ivy scene. The Crimson is the top-ranked team in the Ivy League, ahead of ECAC champion Yale at No. 35 and defending Ivy champion Penn at No. 40—a ranking Graham believes should be higher. In Graham’s eyes, the league is tougher than it ever has been.

And though Harvard’s present Ivy championship drought of three years is its longest since the inception of Ivy women’s tennis, the Crimson—judging by its results so far—has the strong team it needs to win the toughest Ivy round-robin ever following spring break. But there are many matches to play before then.

“This is one of, it not the best, teams I’ve ever had here,” Graham said.

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.