Women Take Third At ECAC Tourney

It was a long weekend for the Harvard women’s tennis team, and not just because of President’s Day.

The squad participated in the ECAC Tournament in the Murr Center, playing three matches in as many days. After winning its opening round match, 6-1, over Cornell, the second-seeded Crimson lost to Yale, 6-1, on Saturday. On Sunday, Harvard took third place in the tournament with a 4-2 win over Princeton.

“This was a key tournament for us to see where we were,” Crimson coach Traci Green said. “And now we see where we’re at, and we’re ready to keep on moving forward.”

The tournament was riddled with delays throughout the weekend for the eight teams, including seven Ivy League schools. Harvard’s matches were delayed by over two hours on each of the first two days, and an additional hour against Princeton. The team spent over 20 hours in the Murr Center over the weekend.

“It was a long day for us,” sophomore Holly Cao said following the match on Saturday that finished over seven hours after it was scheduled to begin.

No. 62 Harvard (5-2) opened the tournament with a commanding victory over the Big Red (6-4).

“[Cornell is] a pretty athletic team,” Green said. “Our players hung in there the whole way.”

After helping her team win the doubles point, No. 79 Cao took her singles match, 6-3, 6-0, at the No. 1 position.

“Holly is one of the top singles players in the Ivy League right now,” Green said.

No. 86 freshman Hideko Tachibana won, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 2, and junior captain Samantha Rosekrans won in straight sets from the No. 4 spot, 6-1, 6-1.

With Harvard already moving on in the tournament, freshmen Kristin Norton at No. 3 and No. 95 Sophie Chang at No. 5 each won in a super tie-break, while sophomore Sam Gridley lost in her abbreviated third set.

On Saturday, the Crimson couldn’t handle No. 43 Yale (8-1). The third-seeded defending ECAC champion Bulldogs outplayed Harvard to take the first two doubles matches.

“Yale played extremely well today,” Green said. “They were on fire in the doubles. They were too much for us. We can improve on pretty much every category. It was a learning experience for us.”

But once Tachibana and Norton won their doubles match, the momentum momentarily switched to the Crimson’s favor, as the three opening singles matches went Harvard’s way in the first set.

“We were clawing our way back there, but it just wasn’t our day today,” Green said.

Only Cao was able to close out her opponent with a 6-2, 6-4 win to tie the overall score.

“I was definitely glad to win the second set,” Cao said. “I did not want to go to a third.”

Unforced errors hampered Norton’s second and third sets, as she lost, 0-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

“Kristin pretty much ran out of gas,” Green said. “But Kristin’s a solid player for us...and I’m sure she’ll learn...from this.”

Chang also dropped her last two sets after taking the first, losing 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

In the second trio of singles matches, Tachibana lost, 6-4, 6-3, to clinch the match for Yale.

Rosekrans forced a third set but then lost 6-3, 4-6, (10-6), as did freshman Alexandra Lehman, 7-6, 4-6, (10-6) playing at the No. 6 spot.

“We have a couple things we want to work on,” Cao said after Saturday’s loss.

Against top-seeded No. 46 Princeton (4-3), Cao won for the third time on the weekend to even the score after the Tigers took the doubles point.

Tachibana earned a point for Harvard in dramatic fashion, outplaying her opponent in the second-set tiebreak to take the match, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2).

Rosekrans won easily, 6-0, 6-1, while Chang rounded out Harvard’s winners with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) win.

Following the Crimson victory over the Tigers, Yale defeated fifth-seeded Dartmouth (7-1) to take its second-consecutive ECAC Tournament championship.

—Staff writer Eric L. Michel can be reached at emichel@fas.harvard.edu.