Women's Tennis Finds Success at ECAC Tournament

The stage was set for a breakthrough weekend for the Harvard women’s tennis team. After an unconvincing start to this season’s campaign after dropping the first two decisions of the 2016 season, the Crimson headed to Hanover to compete indoors at the 3 day ECAC tournament.

The Crimson faced off against no. 43 Princeton in the first round and sent a message to the competition with a strong performance to upstage the second seed in the tournament 4-2. Waiting in the semi finals was Brown. Harvard once against came out victorious, albeit in more dramatic fashion, with sophomore Annika Ringblom clinching the win in game seven for a berth in the final.

The successful run came to an end for Ringblom and co. who would eventually fall to Columbia 4-2, but the weekend was a productive one.

For the last few weeks, the Crimson have often put themselves in the hole early on, with losses in the doubles matchups. But on Friday and then Saturday, Harvard found itself in unfamiliar territory, the team won both doubles contests to give itself a lead of 1-0 going into the six singles matches.

Sophomore Nikki Kallenberg and freshman Siabel Jasper showed their steel in the match up Sunday. They teamed up to trounce the Tigers, 6-2, and more importantly gave Harvard a 1-0 lead.

Against Brown, Kallenberg and Jasper once again settled a doubles win after Harvard initially fell down 1-0.

“It was huge for us to win the doubles points the first two matches because we have been working hard on doubles so it was good to see results and it gave us confidence that we are doing the right thing and it makes singles a little easier,” junior June Lee said.

Without the added pressure of having to make up points in singles, the Crimson showed its resilienceclass, then grit, in victories over Princeton and Brown.

Up 3-2 in matches against the heavily favored Tigers, senior Amy He thwarted any chance of a possible revival with a stylish performance against Princeton’s Emily Hahn,6-4, 5-7, 6-0.

The script changed against a strong Brown squad. After gaining the lead from doubles play the Crimson entertained the Bears in what was an agonizingly close singles competition.

The first two matches went to Brown, Lee and Kallenberg were both beaten in straight sets. The 1-0 lead had turned into a 2-1 uphill battle. Oosterhout and He kept their nerves and push the Crimson back into the lead 3-2. But again there was a change with the Bear’s Maddie Stern coming in the clutch to force a game 7.

Ringblom faced off against Katie Ta and managed to fend off an all out Brown comeback in an impressive performance from the sophomore. She would win 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3.

The victory sent Harvard to the finals.

Because of a technical issue, the Crimson did not know who would be its opponent until late morning on Sunday. Dartmouth wasere eventually beaten by Columbia, Harvard’s final hurdle.

Although Columbia had played earlier, its team came out fast in doubles and gained the advantage in a close third match.

With a loss in doubles, Harvard entered singles play down 1-0. Xiong and He both won in straight sets, but could do little as the Crimson slipped to a 4-2 loss.

“We are extremely happy with our performance this weekend and know that we still have the room the grow as a team before our Ivy matches in April,” Ringblom said. “Overall, this weekend was just a little glimpse into hopefully a very successful season.”

—Staff writer Max McEvoy can be reached at mcevoy@college.harvard.edu