W. Tennis Achieves Ivy League Perfection

The Harvard women’s tennis team has not lost an Ivy League match since 2002, a streak which was prolonged yesterday as the Crimson dominated Dartmouth in a 6-1 victory. The No. 19 Crimson (17-6, 7-0 Ivy), which had already captured the league title with a victory over Brown on Sunday, has now won nine straight matches since falling to USC on March 30.

With the Ivy crown already secured, it would have been easy for the Crimson players to relax against the Big Green (13-8, 3-4), but Harvard refused to back down. Although it was the last conference match of the seniors’ careers, the Crimson retained its focus on senior day and continued its winning ways.

“The girls were aware that there was a lot of potential for getting distracted,” Coach Gordon Graham said. “We wanted to go out on a positive note, and everyone came out strong.”

Strong may be an understatement. The doubles teams quickly triumphed over Dartmouth, snatching the doubles point and continuing a trend that has persisted all season—Harvard has not lost a doubles match since the start of the Ivy campaign.

The Crimson’s first doubles team of freshman Celia Durkin and junior Melissa Anderson—ranked No. 32 in the nation—ran its record to 25-3 with an 8-4 win over Jayme Ahmed and Megan Zebroski. The second doubles team of sophomore Elsa O’Riain and freshman Stephanie Schnitter followed suit with an 8-1 win over Lindsay Winingham and Ann Scott. In the third doubles match, junior Eva Wang and sophomore Preethi Mukundan rounded out the perfect doubles score with an 8-5 triumph over Katie Jaxhemier and Maggie Suydam.

“The doubles didn’t give Dartmouth any hope,” sophomore Cindy Chu said. “Sometimes we have really close doubles matches, but tonight we just finished them off.”

Harvard rode this momentum into the singles matches, where it dropped just one match, senior Alexis Martire’s 1-6, 2-5 loss at No. 3 singles to freshman Margaret Fitchet. The Crimson swept the remaining five singles matches

At No. 1 singles, Durkin, filling in for injured co-captain Courtney Bergman, cruised to victory over Ahmed, a first team All-Ivy selection in 2004. After Durkin emphatically nailed an overhead slam for a commanding 3-0 first-set lead, Ahmed threw her hands up in visible frustration and looked to the sky for guidance. Ahmed regained her composure in the second set, driving to a 3-3 tie, but Durkin won the last three games of the set for a 6-3 win.

“Durkin is such a frustrating player to play,” Graham said. “She puts a lot of pressure on the other player.”

O’Riain then utilized a varied repertoire of powerful serves, spinning drops shots, and clever volleys as she dismantled the Big Green’s Winingham at second singles. O’Riain won the first set, 6-3, but was shaky to start the second set, as Winingham ran the score to 2-2. O’Riain blasted two aces and nailed an overhead slam in the next game, however, to grab a 3-2 lead. She would drop just one more game in the match while finishing off Winingham 6-3.

The fourth and fifth singles players emerged victorious for Harvard with identical 6-1, 6-1 scores. Wang neatly took care of Scott at sixth singles, causing Scott to commit several unforced errors in a quick match. At fourth singles, Anderson never trailed her opponent, Dartmouth’s Suydam, as Anderson used her strong volleys and consistent baseline shots to frustrate her opponent.

And although her match was one of the longest, Mukundan methodically dismantled Zebroski at fifth singles and never seemed to lose control. After cruising to an easy 6-1 victory in the first set, Mukundan dropped the first game of the second set. Although it seemed that Zebroski might ride this momentum to more game victories, Mukundan went on to win the next six games to finish the set by a 6-1 score.

“All the girls took care of business tonight,” Graham said. “The lower half of the lineup really played well. They only dropped five games in six sets. Now that’s taking care of business.”

The Crimson will look to build on this success by taking care of business in the NCAA tournament, which begins after May 4. Harvard hopes to have two of its injured players back for the tournament, seniors Bergman and Susanna Lingman.

The team plans to use the practice time to get ready for that final stretch.

“This is the start of the big push,” Graham said. “We have to up the intensity level and be ready to play tough. We’re our own best competition. We need to push each other in practice.”

Chu echoed the sentiment.

“Each girl has something in mind to work on,” she added. “The NCAA’s will be tough, but we’re up for adversity.”