Women's Tennis Earns Two Wins on Road Trip

This weekend the Harvard women's tennis team hit the road to take on the Cornell Big Red and the Princeton Tigers for two matchups with important Ivy League implications.

Saturday's matchup against the Tigers--who were undefeated in Ivy play--promised to be an all-out battle between the two tennis powers of the Ivy League, with the winner taking the inside track to the Ancient Eight Championship.

Led once again by junior Ivy Wang, the Crimson (14-6, 4-0 Ivy) rose to the challenge and defeated the talented Princeton squad by a score of 6-3.

In singles play, Wang opened her match with Princeton's Blair Farr by cruising to a one set lead, 6-1. Unshaken, Farr powered back, taking the second set 6-2. Wang was able to regroup, however. Regaining her early form, she closed out the match 6-1 in the third.

The Crimson also received straight-set singles victories from co-captain Rosemary She, sophomore Vedica Jain, and freshman Sanaz Ghazal. But two close set-backs to co-captain Gabriela Hricko and senior Julia Kim left the Crimson with only a 4-2 lead after singles play, giving the Tigers a chance to take the match with a sweep in doubles.

Harvard, however, was up to the challenge. Turning Princeton back in the doubles round, Harvard won two out the three matches to close out the victory 6-3.

The team of Wan and She cruised to an 8-0 victory in doubles, while the team of Hricko and Jain won its match 8-4.

After its big win at Princeton, the Crimson went on to Ithaca, NY to take on the Big Red. Hoping to avoid a let-down against the weaker Cornell team, Harvard took care of business, handing the Big Red a resounding 7-2 defeat.

Wang dominated her opening match against Cornell's Michelle Degen, 6-2, 6-0, to get the Crimson started. She, Jain, Ghazal, and sophomore Sinead Walsh continued the onslaught as each posted straight-set victories in the singles matches. After suffering only one singles defeat--a tight three-setter for Kim--the Crimson entered the doubles round with a commanding 5-1 lead.

The doubles round proved to be a little tighter than expected. With the outcome already determined, the Big Red was playing only for pride, and ended up giving the Crimson all it could handle.

The team of Wang and She had to come back from a 6-5 deficit to Cornell's team of Rebecca Cannom and Kelly Molly to pull out an 8-6 victory. The duo of Walsh and Kristen Flink also had their hands full, winning its doubles match 9-7. Cornell finally broke through when its team of Degen and Jodie Hurley managed to defeat the Crimson pair of Kim and Ghazal 8-5.

With the two big Ivy wins, the weekend was a huge success for the Crimson, as it improved its Ivy record to 4-0. As the clear frontrunner for the Ivy crown, Harvard now takes on the Yale Bulldogs and the Brown Bears in the friendly confines of the Palmer-Dixon courts next weekend.