HIGHLIGHTS

The Harvard women's tennis team opened its team schedule for the spring this Presidents' Day weekend by dropping a pair of road matches to two tough opponents at Nashville's Centennial Sportsplex.

On Monday the Crimson--which entered the weekend ranked 18th in the country--was handed an 8-1 defeat by the No. 16-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores, one day after falling to the No. 20-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks by the identical score.

Sunday's win by the Commodores was highlighted by No. 79-ranked Kristy Blumberg's 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over Harvard junior Ivy Wang, who is ranked 16th nationally.

"They're two really tough teams," said senior Gabriela Hricko, whose 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win over Arkansas' Louise Ostling represented the Crimson's lone singles victory of the weekend.

"It was the first time in two or three months we've played outside, so we knew we'd have to fight really hard," Hricko said.

Blumberg's victory was the only non-straight-set singles win for the Commodores, who also took two of three doubles matches.

The Harvard team of Wang and senior Julia Kim prevented the clean sweep with an 8-6 win over Vanderbilt's Kristen Radford and Staci Ryan.

In addition to its environmental adversity, the Crimson was also forced to play without one of its top players, senior Rosemary She, who is injured.

When the squad returns to full strength and garners more outdoor practice time later in the season, Harvard women's tennis fans should receive a more accurate gauge of where their team stands.

"They were close matches and people fought really hard," Hricko said. "We can use this to build upon. It shows that we have a lot of work to do, and it shows us what level we have to be competing at."