W. Tennis

Not only was the flight to California long, but it seemed even longer when the Harvard women's tennis team got there.

The 23rd-ranked Crimson finished its annual road trip to the West with a 1-5 record, dropping its overall record to 7-11. Harvard lost to 16th-ranked San Diego, 6-0, U.S. International 6-3, 18th-ranked San Diego State, 6-3, third-ranked UCLA, 7-2, and 12th-ranked Pepperdine, 5-1. But the Crimson destroyed Cal-State, 9-0, to close out the trip.

One factor that contributed to the Crimson's five losses may have been adjusting to the outdoors and the heat of California. All of Harvard's previous matches this year have been played indoors because of bad weather. The Crimson also played six matches in six days.

"Everybody played well considering the conditions," junior Christina Dragomirescu said. "It's tough playing six matches in a row. We would have wanted to win more matches, but we were still happy about the whole trip. We proved to be very competitive with them."

The Crimson's toughest match of the trip was against third-ranked UCLA. In singles action, Nikki Rival was the only one to win a match against the powerful Bruin squad.

One of the most exciting matches was between Dragomirescu and Jessica Emmons, the 13th-ranked singles player in the country.

Dragomirescu won the first set, 7-5, then pulled out to a 4-2 lead in the second set. But Emmons rallied to take the second set, 6-4, and the third, 6-2, to stave off the upset.

In doubles action, Jacki Farrell and Jennifer Minkus downed their opponents to give Harvard its only other victory against UCLA. The other two doubles matches went three sets, but the Crimson came up short to the Bruins in both matches.

There's a chance that the Crimson could meet the Bruins in the NCAA tournament in May.

Harvard opened its trip with a loss to San Diego. It was the Crimson's first match outdoors this season. In the match against U.S. International, Dragomirescu and Harvard Co-Captain Kathy Mulvehal captured wins in singles action, and Farrell and Mulvehal pulled out a doubles victory.

Harvard then dropped a 6-3 decision to San Diego State. Henikoff and Dragomirescu both won in singles action, and Farrell and Mulvheal once again won at second doubles.

In the number-two singles match, Henikoff captured a 6-4,6-2 over Kristin Hill, the number-two player for San Diego State. It was Henikoff's first win ever against Hill. In the first set, Hill won the first 12 points to take a 3-0 lead, before Henikoff rallied.

After San Diego State, Harvard fell, 5-1, to Pepperdine, with Minkus capturing the sole victory for the Crimson. Pepperdine recently lost, 5-4, to second-ranked Stanford.

"I think it was really good for us to play schools out there," Henikoff said. "It took us awhile to get used to playing outside. Everyone is definitely match-tough. It's mentally tough to play six matches in a row."