Women's Tennis Opens Ivy Play With Split

After falling at the last possible moment Friday against Columbia (10-4, 3-0 Ivy), the Harvard women’s tennis team (9-5, 1-1) bounced back with a 6-1 victory over Cornell (12-2, 1-2). Now healthy, the Crimson began April the way it ended March, when it won four of five matches to close out the month. Freshman Hai-Li Kong said that the team is peaking at the right time as it heads into Ancient Eight competition.

“I think we played amazing [this weekend],” Kong said. “I think we had the best two performances that we had this year. Everyone was so tough and it was great to watch and be a part of.”

HARVARD 6, CORNELL 1

On Saturday, the team battled back and scored a 6-1 victory against the host Big Red. Harvard won all but one singles match, winning four of the five in straight sets and winning seven sets while giving up two games or fewer. Kong said that the team came out with an added sense of urgency in the second leg of the doubleheader to make sure the team did not fall to 0-2 in conference play.

“Because of our loss against Columbia, we were even more motivated the next day,” Kong said. “We’ve been training really hard. We just want it really badly, especially for our senior captains. This is their last Ivy season and we really want to win this title for them.”

In doubles, co-captains Kristin Norton and Hideko Tachibana got back to their winning ways with an 8-5 victory, while Kong and junior Hannah Morill pulled out a victory at the number three line. In singles, the freshmen trio of Kong, Amanda Lin, and Amy He all pulled out wins to give the Crimson an insurmountable 4-0 lead in the best-of-seven format.

“I am incredibly proud of all of the freshmen,” Tachibana said. “They really held their own, and especially in their first Ivy match, you get extremely nervous, and the fans are heckling, and the line judges aren’t supportive, but they handled it really well, and they really represented Harvard women’s tennis well.”

Tachibana said that the team has been preparing all season for Ivy League play and was glad to get out on the courts and play the games that count.

“This is what we have been working for the entire year,” Tachibana said. “Fall season isn’t as fun because you are playing individually and not playing for Harvard every point that you win. In the spring season, every match you play, you are trying to compare each opponent to how it would be in the Ivy League. For me, it is my last season ever, and working hard in practice has all been for this season—for this last part of the season.”

COLUMBIA 4, HARVARD 3

On Friday against Columbia, the team fell down 3-0 after losing the doubles match and two singles contests before battling back to secure the next three matches—twice fighting back from a set down to do so. Kong took two close tiebreaker sets to win at the line four position, while Lin and sophomore Sylvia Li overcame one-set deficits to take the line five and line six matches.

With the score knotted up, 3-3, the only match remaining was the line two contest, where He—who led the team with eight wins coming into the match—faced off against Cornell’s Bianca Sanon. He lost the first set on two breaks, 2-6, but battled back to take the second, 6-4. In the deciding set, Sanon won a 7-3 tiebreaker to send the Lions to the victory.

“Losing to Columbia was tough, but on that given day they were a better team,” Tachibana said. “It was our first Ivy match, so we had a lot of nerves going in, and the fact that we were so close and they were the most talented team gives us a lot of hope for the rest of the season.”

In doubles play, the duo of Tachibana and Norton suffered their first loss of the season at the line one position, falling, 8-5, after six consecutive victories to open the season. Lin and Li fell, 8-3, at the line two position, and Kong and Morrill were down a break, 6-3, when play was stopped.

—Staff writer David P. Freed can be reached at davidfreed@college.harvard.edu. Follow David on Twitter at @CrimsonDPFreed.