W. Tennis Serves Up Five Titles

Teamwork was the overriding theme this weekend for the Harvard women’s tennis squad as they traveled to the Brown Invitational in Providence, RI.

The Crimson was represented in the finals of each of the singles and doubles draws and brought home five out of the eight titles.

In the singles draws, the Crimson continues to be led by a strong freshman class. Freshmen Susanna Lingman and Ashley Hyotte won the titles in the B fligh and C flight draws, respectively.

Classmates Alexis Martire and Courtney Bergman also performed well in the top-level A flight singles draw. Martire advanced to the championship round where she was defeated by Temple University sophomore Lara Ercegovic, 6-2, 6-2.

Despite the loss, Martire is excited about her young team and her ownpotential.

“I came in third last weekend [at the Harvard Fall Invitational], so I am really happy with my play,” Martire said. “Our freshman class is awesome. The whole team is really talented. Our coaches have us well prepared, so if we play well, we should have a good chance of winning ECACs.”

Top seed Bergman was also defeated by Ercegovic in the semifinal round of the A flight, 6-3, 4-6, 10-6. The three set loss was the first for Bergman. Last weekend she won Harvard’s Fall Invitational without dropping a set.

The Crimson entered this weekend without the services of two of its more experienced players. Sophomore Sanja Bajin skipped the Brown Invitational to attend All-Americans on Monday, October 8. Co-Captain Andrea Magyera has not played yet this fall due to injury.

But, the tremendous play of the Crimson rookies has pushed the team to its early fall successes and has given the team a lot of confidence for the important spring season ahead.

“We only lost one player from last year’s roster,” co-captain Fleur Broughton said. “So the combination of several experienced players and a very talented group of freshmen make our team very good.”

Such a strong team performance in an individual tournament is very encouraging as the team looks ahead towards the ECAC team tournament next weekend that will include stronger competition from Ivy League foes Princeton and Pennsylvania.

“The ECAC tournament is the biggest event of the fall,” senior Jennie Timoney said. “Our team is very deep individually, and we have practiced with several combinations for doubles play. With Sanja [Bajin] returning and strong spirit that our freshmen bring, we expect to compete for the ECAC title.”

It was the play of the more experienced players that rounded out the dominating performance this weekend.

In the B flight singles draw, Broughton reached the finals where she was defeated by Lingman, 6-2, 6-0. Junior Lara Naqushbandi also was defeated by a teammate in the finals of the C flight singles draw, losing to Hyotte, 6-3, 6-3.

Timoney cruised through the D flight singles draw, only to lose in the finals to Kerry Meath of Brown 6-4, 6-4.

The doubles draws showed the depth of the Crimson as the team left the weekend with 3 of the 4 doubles titles.

Bergman and Lingman teamed up to win the A flight doubles draw, winning 8-0 over Christina Causeway and Lindsay Dynof of Boston University.

Broughton and Hyotte took the C flight doubles title 8-4 over the Boston College duo of Emily Hellberg and Anisha Fernando, while Timoney and Naqushbandi defeated the D flight doubles top seeded tandem from UVA, Laura James and Elizabeth Hornberger, 8-3.

Youth and experience paired up as Martire and Senior Sarah McGinty reached the finals of the B flight doubles draw, succumbing to the UVA team of Jennifer Tuchband and Dora Bechliwanis, 8-5.