No. 68 Harvard Splits Weekend Matchups Against Ranked Foes

After suffering an emotional defeat to No. 73 William and Mary on Saturday, the No. 68 Harvard women’s tennis team went full-steam ahead to defeat the No. 63 Boilermakers, 5-2, last night at the Murr Center.

“We lost a heartbreaker yesterday, and we knew today was going to be a dog fight,” Crimson coach Terri Green said. “We were ready to fight the whole way through.”

NO. 68 HARVARD 5, NO. 63 PURDUE 2

Fight Harvard did. First-time doubles teammates, junior Sam Gridley and freshman Amanda Black, gave Harvard an 8-6 victory after being down, 6-3. The No. 2 doubles team of freshman Hannah Morrill and junior co-captain Holly Cao also battled to a tough 9-7 win, while Harvard’s No. 1 duo, sophomores Kristen Norton and Hideko Tachibana, dropped their match, 8-6, to Purdue’s Jennifer Rabot and Mara Schmidt.

Taking the doubles match provided a rallying point for the Crimson.

“We just tried to focus on our energy rather than our game, screaming after every point,” Gridley said. “It really worked, and our games elevated to match our energy.”

This energy transferred to Harvard’s singles play as well, with the Crimson taking four of the six matches.

Cao pulled in an easy victory in No. 1 singles, winning 6-0 in the first set and 6-3 in the second, while Tachibana grabbed a win with scores of 6-4, 6-4, in the second slot.

After tying the match at one set each, Norton slammed the ball out of reach of her opponent to produce a 6-3 comeback win in final point of the No. 3 singles match.

“She was hitting it deep a lot, and I was just missing everything,” Norton said, “I decided to change my game plan and come in more, and I started to make more shots.”

Relying on her speed and net play, Gridley dominated the first set, 6-2, fell 6-4 in the second, and stuck out a lengthy third set to win, 10-8.

Morrill dropped her No. 5 match to the Boilermakers’ Imogen Golder, 6-2, 6-3. Sophomore Alex Lehman also suffered a 7-5, 6-4 loss to Purdue’s Gisella Pere.

“I feel like our mental toughness really shined today,” Green said.

NO. 73 WILLIAM AND MARY 4, HARVARD 3

Harvard fell 4-3 to the Tribe, dropping the deciding point in the doubles matches.

In the No. 1 doubles match, Norton and partner Tachibana pulled out the Crimson’s only win with an 8-2 domination.

The Tribe replicated Harvard’s performance in the other doubles matches, defeating the Crimson’s No. 2 team of Blosser and Cao, 8-2, and the No. 3 team of Morrill and co-captain Samantha Rosekrans, 8-3.

“We’ve been working on doubles in practice [because] that was our weak point,” Cao said. “Unfortunately, that didn’t [work] so well for us today.”

With William and Mary striking early, the pressure was on for the singles matches.

Ending her match with an easy lob, Cao was able to produce a strong victory in the No. 1 singles match, defeating the Tribe’s Hope Johnson, 6-4, 6-1.

“We fought much harder in singles, but we couldn’t get our first doubles point,” Cao said. “It’s harder playing with a partner, and sometimes you just have off days.”

The Crimson showed their strength in singles, but William and Mary fought just as hard, leading to a 3-3 score for the matches.

Cao and Norton gave Harvard easy wins in the No. 1 and No. 3 singles matches, while Gridley came back from a loss in the first set to earn a 6-3 and a 1-0 victory in her second and third sets, respectively.

Playing in the No. 2 singles match, Tachibana notched the win in the first set, 6-4.

The second set did not have the same result, as the large amount of on-the-net play found Tachibana dropping the set, 7-5. The Tribe’s freshman Jeltje Loomans sealed the victory with 6-4 score in the third set.

Harvard will take a two-week break before heading to California for its next match.