Rookies Headline Women's Tennis at Yale Bulldog Invite

Heading into the recent holiday weekend, the Harvard women’s tennis team had little reason to celebrate. Many of last year’s returning players were facing injuries, forcing young recruits into action.

Over multiple days at the Yale Bulldog Invite, this squadron of fresh faces competed against Brown, UMass Amherst, and Stony Brook, posting a 1-2 record in the event.

After a 5-2 loss to the Minutewomen on Friday, the Crimson responded with a 4-3 triumph over the Seawolves. Although Harvard tied Stony Brook in singles, the team went 2-1 in doubles to secure the win.

The going was tougher against Brown, the only Ivy League competitor that the Crimson faced all weekend. Harvard dropped that contest, 1-6, with freshman Irene Lu providing the team’s lone victory. She won, 6-2, 7-5, over Bears junior Maddie Stearns.

“I think the matches went pretty well this weekend,” freshman Nika Besker said. “We are all improving with every tournament and every match, so we are all positive about our games. The energy on the courts was also really good, which is especially important for us.”

The team’s youngest players featured throughout the weekend, as four of the six members of the squad travelling to the event were rookies. Besker, Lu, Natasha Gonzalez, and Kaelli Thiel may all be new to the college game, but as captain June Lee described, match experience provides a powerful learning opportunity.

“I think it was especially good for the freshmen to get a taste of what the season is going to be like next semester,” Lee said. “We played some solid teams this weekend, so it was good for everyone to work on their game and just put things we have been working on into practice.”

Starting its weekend off with the doubles portion of a match against UMass Amherst, the Crimson looked to build some momentum with a strong showing right out of the gate. However, each of the three doubles squads fell in single-set elimination games. The pairing of Gonzalez and Jasper was the closest to victory, as the duo posted a 7-5 result.

Winning doubles marks a major point of emphasis for Harvard, as a victory in the event can provide the key tie-breaking point in the overall match score. But doubles wins proved relatively elusive for Harvard, as the team also lost all three of these matches against Brown.

“It's always competitive when we play another Ivy [League school],” Lee said. “[It’s] good to see them early on before the actual Ivy season.”

An exception to this losing trend came against Stony Brook, as the Crimson claimed two of three doubles matches. The pairings of sophomore Isabel Jasper and Gonzalez, and Besker and Lee provided those two key triumphs, both winning 6-4.

Compared to the doubles performance, the Crimson fared better in the longer best-two-out-of-three-sets format in the singles portion of the event. In her first match at the No. 1 position, Lee cruised to victory against UMass Amherst’s Ruth Crawford, 6-2, 6-2. However, Lee later fell 7-5, 6-4 and 2-6, 6-2, 10-7 in hard-fought matches against competitors from Brown and Stony Brook, respectively.

Gonzalez put forth a strong performance of her own. After claiming her first match when her opponent conceded midway through play, the freshman player bested an opponent from Stony Brook, 6-4, 6-3. However, this streak of success came to a halt when Gonzalez lost a decision against No. 116 Alyza Benotto of Brown.

Lu posted the only other winning record for Harvard; her lone loss came to Serbian national Janja Kovacevic of the Minutewomen, 6-2, 6-2.

Brown provided the toughest test for the Crimson on the weekend, indicating that the Ivy League season in the spring should provide a similar challenge for Harvard.

“I think this tournament was a great experience for us,” Besker said. “We all have different things to work on, but the most important thing is that we know our strengths and weaknesses. We are definitely going to improve and get stronger over the [coming] weeks.”

—Staff writer Jackson M. Reynolds can be reached at jacksonreynolds@college.harvard.edu.