FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: Veteran Ends Career with Perfect Record, Ivy Crown

Senior Beier Ko has seen it all as a member of the Harvard women’s tennis team. She’s been the eager freshman, sidelined by injury on a team that bulldozed its way to the Ivy League title in 2006. She’s been the veteran on a rebuilding squad that floundered to a 2-17 mark last year. And in 2009, Ko was the leader of an extraordinary story of resurgence.

As the undisputed No. 1 player on the Crimson (13-8, 6-1 Ivy), Ko went undefeated in the Ancient Eight and led her team to a share of the Ivy League title.

She was unanimously named the Ivy League Player of the Year.

“[This year] was amazing,” Ko said. “It’s nice to win Ivies freshman year and senior year. I think it’s a great way to finish my career in college tennis.”

Ko, who describes herself as an aggressive baseliner, has improved her play over the past four years, establishing herself as one of the nation’s top players. Ko finished the season ranked No. 99 by the ITA.

“As coaches, we’re very proud of the way she’s developed in the last year,” Harvard coach Traci Green said. “We’re definitely going to miss a super reliable No. 1-type player in our lineup.”

In the Ivy League, Ko was more than just reliable. She was perfect. The senior went 5-0 at No. 1 singles and 6-0 at No. 1 doubles.

According to Ko, she became more comfortable at net as Green pushed her and the rest of the team to improve their doubles play.

The extra practice showed as Ko and her partner, sophomore Agnes Sibilski, took down two ranked teams—No. 36 Hillary Bartlett and Taylor Marable from Princeton and No. 67 Bianca Aboubakare and Cassandra Herzberg from Brown—en route to being voted unanimously to the Ivy League First Team.

Ko, honored as the ITA East Senior Player of the Year, was also the lone representative from the Ivy League at the NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles Championships in late May.

She is only the third player in Harvard history to be invited to this tournament three years in a row.

At the championships, hosted by Texas A&M, Ko challenged No. 46 Nadia Abdala from Arizona State. After an epic three-and-a-half hour match, Ko ultimately met her demise, falling 6-2, 6-7, 6-4.

“It was a good match,” Ko said. “I didn’t play very well to be honest, but I put up a good fight, I thought. I definitely gave her a run for her money.”

Despite the outcome at the NCAA tournament, Ko showed this year that she was a national threat.

She opened the fall season on fire, and at the William and Mary Invitational in September, Ko tore down three nationally ranked opponents—No. 109 Bianca Eichkorn of Miami, No. 46 Ela Kaluder of Arkansas, and No. 94 Katarina Zoricic of William and Mary.

Ko’s accomplishments, according to Green, can be attributed to a new drive to succeed.

“She’s really matured a lot in the last four months especially—she became more goal-oriented,” Green said. “I think after spring break she was setting more individual goals...getting the first point for the team, sweeping every doubles match.”

After sustaining a wrist injury in the spring non-league schedule, Ko was forced to sit out the first two Ivy matches against Cornell and Columbia.

When she returned, Ko showed no signs of lingering pain. In matches against Penn, Yale, and Dartmouth, she won in straight sets.

“She really stepped it up in Ivies,” captain Laura Peterzan said. “She really wanted to win.”

Ko’s endurance also proved to be a major weapon.

In tough matches against Princeton and Brown, Ko was forced into a third set. However, she stayed poised and emerged victorious in both battles.

“She put a lot of work in as far as her endurance goes,” Green said. “She did a lot of cardio. I think her conditioning really paid off.”

Ko’s contribution also came in the form of helping Peterzan lead a young team.

After sophomore Agnes Sibilski clinched the Ivy League Championship with a win against Dartmouth, Ko was the first to congratulate her.

“I was really close to everyone on the team this year,” Ko said. “It was a great feeling. It was a really close bunch.”

Despite Ko’s accomplishments this season, it’s the camaraderie, not the accolades, that she will remember most.

“The best part of the experience was meeting the people on the team, bonding, all that stuff,” she said. “I really cherish those moments.”

—Staff writer Jake I. Fisher can be reached at jifisher@fas.harvard.edu.