Netwomen Place Third at Harvard Invitational

Co-Captain Cyndy Austrian and junior Kathy Mulvehal led the Harvard women's tennis team to a third-place finish in the Harvard Invitational Tournament over the weekend.

The tournament, hosted by the Crimson, included some of the best teams from around the country, including Clemson, Indiana, North Carolina, Mississippi, Princeton, Syracuse and William & Mary.

Mulvehal, a junior, sparked the Crimson to its strong finish over the weekend. The team's number-six singles player finished the "C" singles championship with a 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 victory in the finals over Cynthia Mitchell from William & Mary.

"I feel really good about my tennis game right now," Mulvehal said. "I worked in a lot of new things such as a serve and volley, which I've never really used before."

Mulvehal combined with Austrian to win their doubles bracket with a 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 win in the finals over Brenda Hacker and Gretchen Doninger of Indiana. The Crimson's number-three doubles team, coming off a big championship victory in the Syracuse Invitational last month, survived split sets in three of their four matches in the tournament.

"We're all trying new things," said Austrian, who was an All-Ivy doubles performer last year. "We're trying to be much more aggressiveness more than singles."

Austrian advanced to the second round in her singles bracket with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Dawn Parkhurst of Mississippi before losing to Laurie Stephen of Clemson, 6-3, 6-4.

Sophomores Christina Dragomirescu and Nicole Rival also turned in strong performances for the the Crimson.

Dragomirescu advanced to the semifinals in the "C" singles tourney with a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing of Aditi Viswanathan of Princeton before falling to Valerie Farmer of UNC, 6-0, 6-4.

Rival topped Kirsten Caister of William & Mary, 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, to advance to the semifinals of the "D" singles, where she was beaten by eventual champion Farmer of UNC, 6-0, 6-4.

"I feel really good about our singles teams, and our doubles teams are three of the best in the country," Austrian said. "Whenever we lose, we lose well. We just have to turn any of our losses into wins."

Stiff Competition

Harvard should get a good indication of its national standing in the next two weeks. The netwomen will face off this weekend against the other two best teams in the East--Virginia and William & Mary--before competing the following weekend in the Eastern Regional Indoor Team Qualifying Championships. That tournmant, hosted by Princeton, will include the best teams in the Eastern part of the country.

Other finals in the Harvard Invitational included Julie Kaczmarek's (William & Mary) 2-6, 7-6, 6-1 victory over Ann Stephenson (UNC) in "A" singles. Indiana teammates Kelly Mulvihill and Doninger met in the "B" singles final with Mulvihill winning, 6-3, 6-4. Farmer (UNC) topped Shawn Foltz (Indiana), 7-6, 6-4 in the "D" singles final.

In the other doubles bracket, Gina Goblisrch and Spencer Barnes (UNC) won a 6-4, 6-3 match over Reka Monoki and Foltz (Indiana).