Women's Tennis Falls at Yale, Takes Down Brown

The Harvard women’s tennis team entered this past weekend’s matchups with an outside shot at winning the Ivy League title. Having already lost two matches in conference play, the Crimson needed a pair of wins in addition to a few upsets  to land in first place in the Ancient Eight.

But Harvard’s chances were cut short by first-place Yale on Friday when the Bulldogs handled the Crimson, 6-1, at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Conn. Yale proceeded to beat Dartmouth, 6-1, on Sunday to secure the outright Ivy title and to preserve its undefeated record in the Ancient Eight this season. The Crimson also ended its weekend on a positive note, taking down Brown, 4-3, at the Murr Center on Sunday afternoon.

Junior co-captain Hideko Tachibana went perfect over the two days, winning both of her doubles and singles matches—all at the No. 1 position.

“When I went on the court, my mindset was that I was going to fight for every single point no matter what,” Tachibana said. “Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged when you see your teammates not doing so well in their matches, but I tried to stay as focused as possible on my own court, and I guess that worked in the end.”

Tachibana’s doubles partner, fellow junior co-captain Kristin Norton, also had a notable weekend, finishing with a win in one of her two singles matches to add to the doubles victories she shared with Tachibana.

The duo of senior Samantha Gridley and freshman Kelly Whelan also took a win at No. 2 doubles spot against Brown, while Whelan continued her momentum into singles play, defeating the Bears’ Sarah Kandath.

“We were really focused on ending the season well,” Tachibana said. “Hopefully if we beat Dartmouth next weekend, we’ll end in third [place].”

HARVARD 4, BROWN 3

The Crimson began its matchup against the Bears stronger than its contest against Yale.

Harvard jumped out to an early 1-0 lead by taking the doubles point. Tachibana and Norton defeated their opponents, 8-2, while Brown’s Nikita Uberoi and Carissa Aboubakare took down sophomore Natalie Blosser and freshman Sylvia Li, 8-3, at the No. 3 position. At the No. 2 court, the match went into a tiebreaker, and the tandem of Gridley and Whelan beat their foes, 9-7.

Up 1-0 going into singles, the Crimson split the decisions. Brown took the No. 3, No. 4, and No. 6 matches over Blosser, Gridley, and Li, respectively. Blosser dropped her contest, 6-2, 6-4, before Gridley lost, 6-2, 6-3. Li fell 6-3, 6-2.

But at the No. 2 spot, Norton beat Jessica Harrow, 6-1, 6-4, and Whelan also defeated Kandath, 6-2, 6-3, at the No. 5 position.

The dual meet came down to the No.1 court, where Tachibana took on Misia Krasowski. Tachibana dropped the first set but came back strong in the next two, ultimately winning, 6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-2.

YALE 6, HARVARD 1

The Crimson began its weekend on Friday with a 6-1 loss to the Bulldogs on the road.

Yale, which came into the game sitting in first place in the conference standings, clinched at least a share of the Ivy League title with its victory over Harvard.

The Crimson, on the other hand, dropped its chances for the Ivy throne in the bout.

The day began slowly for the visitors. In doubles play, the duo of Tachibana and Norton took down Vicky Brook and Amber Li, 8-6, at the No. 1 spot. But the Bulldogs notched victories at the other two courts, and their two 8-2 wins gave the home team the first team point of the match.

In Harvard’s sole singles win, Tachibana battled Yale’s Elizabeth Epstein. All three sets went into tiebreakers. Tachibana won the first set, 7-6 (4), but lost the next, 6-7 (2). Finally, after an 11-point tiebreaker, Tachibana came out on top and gave the Crimson its lone point of the match.

Junior Camille Jania fell, 6-1, 6-0, at the No. 2 position, while Gridley was unable to win at the No. 3 spot, as her opponent came out on top, 6-2, 6-0. On the No. 6 court, Whelan also had a relatively short match, losing, 6-1, 6-3.

Norton and Blosser’s individual matches at the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively, went into tiebreakers. Norton won her first set, but dropped the next two, falling 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-7). Blosser had a similar fate, losing the final two sets after opening with a victory, 5-7, 7-5, 1-0 (10-8).

—Staff writer Taryn I. Kurcz can be reached at tkurcz@college.harvard.edu.