W. Tennis Clinches Ivy Title

For the third consecutive season and for the 16th time in its history, the No. 19 Harvard women’s tennis team captured the Ivy League crown after posting a pair of 6-1 victories against Brown yesterday and Yale on Friday. The Crimson won its eighth-straight match, dating back to an April 2 victory against Pepperdine, and improved to 16-6 overall. With the title, the team automatically qualified for the NCAA tournament.

“[Winning the league] speaks to the talent of this group and the drive, the motivation, and also staying focused,” Harvard coach Gordon Graham said. “It would have been easy to slide by and win some matches 5-2, 4-3, but everybody’s pretty competitive and motivated to win.”

HARVARD 6, BROWN 1

Brown brought high energy to its indoor court when it hosted Harvard yesterday, but the Bears could only get one point on the board as the Crimson, which has become used to winning indoors, took care of business in both doubles and singles play.

“Brown fought all the way and their players were tough,” junior Eva Wang said. “They came out acting like they were going to win.”

Harvard has swept the doubles matches since the start of the Ivy League season, and increased its streak to seven with the win over Brown. The No. 1 pair, consisting of freshman Celia Durkin and junior Melissa Anderson, also increased its record to an impressive 24-3 with an 8-4 win over Brown’s Daisy Ames and Alex Arlak.

In the No. 2 position, Sophomore Elsa O’Riain and freshman Stephanie Schnitter triumphed against the Bears’ Anita Ivancevic and Michelle Pautler, 8-5, and Wang and sophomore Preethi Mukundan teamed up at the No. 3 spot to win by a score of 9-7 over Kelley Kirkpatrick and Ashley Parisier.

The Crimson won its singles matches in convincing two-set decisions, suffering only a lone two-set loss. Durkin, playing at the No. 1 spot in place of injured co-captain Courtney Bergman, won both sets of her match by a score of 6-1 against Brown’s Amanda Saionz. Co-captain Susanna Lingman, usually at the No. 2 position, also sat out this match. Her spot was filled by O’Riain, who had little trouble taking care of her match against Ames in a 6-1, 6-4 decision.

Senior Alexis Martire at No. 3 fell to the Bears’ Arlak, 6-4, 6-4, but No. 5 Mukundan and No. 6 Wang toppled their opponents with 6-2, 6-4 and 6-2, 6-2 victories, respectively.

“They came out pretty fiery and ambitious and everyone focused and buckled down pretty well,” Bergman said. “Alexis [Martire] had a tough time against [Arlak], who was very consistent.”

HARVARD 6, YALE 1

The Bulldogs were no match for Harvard Friday, though they were able to steal a singles victory for the team’s sole point.

“[The match] was overall very successful and very efficient,” Durkin said.

The Crimson triumphed in its doubles matches in routine fashion, as Durkin and Anderson at the No. 1 spot crushed Yale’s Aimee Kim and Christine Alford 8-2, while the No. 2 pair O’Riain and Schnitter claimed an 8-5 victory against Rashmee Patil and Reshmi Srinath. Lingman and Wang wrapped up their doubles match with an 8-3 win over the Bulldogs’ Stephanie White and Olivia Nix.

The singles matches featured two returns from starting players to the lineup, as Durkin and O’Riain competed at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions. Both Durkin and O’Riain, however, had a difficult start to their respective matches as Yale’s Patil and Kim each claimed the first set.

“We definitely were not on our game,” Durkin said. “We were both down on the second set and lost the first and looked at each other and said, ‘let’s turn this around.’”

Durkin fired back with a second-set victory and a 10-8 tiebreak win to prevail, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (8), but O’Riain, who had led 6-1 in the second set tiebreak, allowed that to slip away as Kim took the match by a score of 6-2, 7-6 (7).

Lingman moved up one position to play at No. 1 while Bergman sat out, and she won easily over Yale’s Srinath, 6-1, 6-0. She was one of three Crimson players to post a 6-0 set victory, as Anderson at the No. 5 spot and Mukundan at No. 6 had little difficulty defeating their opponents, winning by scores of 6-3, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0, respectively. Martire also won her match 6-3, 6-1 against the Bulldogs’ Alford.

Though the Crimson has already clinched the Ivy League title, a win against Dartmouth at home on Wednesday will sweeten the victory. Beating the Big Green would mark the third time Harvard finished the season with an undefeated Ivy League record.

“The team’s doing awesome and everyone’s been playing pretty well,” Bergman said. “We’ve just gone in with the same attitude every single match—win every point, every game.”