Club Tennis Impresses at First Fall Tournament

As classes begin to rev up this weekend and the autumn cold begins to come in fast and strong, the fall club sports season is following suit. Tryouts are finishing up, games are starting, and the real competition has begun.

This weekend, Harvard men’s and women’s club tennis teams wrote the inaugural success story of the 2011 fall club sports season, winning the Battle of the Sections Tournament on the U.S Open courts at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Queens.

The Crimson teams flooded to New York on Friday, only one week after the conclusion of the U.S. Open, to face the top-16 club teams in the Northeast at the annual invitational round robin tournament.

Harvard’s men’s and women’s teams, who played as a joint team for this tournament, downed UVA 21-13 in the finals. The concluding matches were played on the Louis Armstrong and Grandstand courts, which proved to be a particularly memorable experience for some club members.

“Thinking of all the incredible matches that had taken place on the very courts we were playing on was absolutely surreal,” junior Cerianne Robertson said.

The New York tournament is unique for using the “World Team” tennis competition format, which featured singles, doubles, and mixed double matches to “put the emphasis on the team in what is traditionally viewed as an individualistic sport,” according to former team captain, senior Tarek Austin.

“Winning at NYC was a promising achievement for our team as we look ahead to Sectionals in October, and, if all goes well, Nationals in the Spring, in North Carolina,” Austin said.

Robertson, senior Louise Laciny and freshmen Mari Georgiadis and Tara Jain represented the women’s team, while Austin, senior Greg Leya, senior James Ong, junior Jake Dockterman, and senior Bryan Martin played for the men.

Both teams will head to Northeastern on Saturday to participate in the Tennis Beanpot Tournament, where they hope to champion, this time, over other Boston teams.