Tennis Foursome Departs For Nationals

It’s ‘Westward ho!’ for Harvard tennis as four members of the men’s and women’s tennis teams head to Dallas today to compete in the ITA indoor national tournament.

Sophomores Alexis Martire and Courtney Bergman will compete in singles action, while the doubles team of co-captain David Lingman and junior Mark Ridell will represent the Harvard men.

All four are coming off strong performances at ITA regionals last week, and look to continue their solid play into this weekend.

Martire, who was seeded ninth entering Eastern regionals, finished in second place behind William and Mary’s Megan Muth.

“I wasn’t obviously expecting to do so well,” Martire said. “I had a very big academic load at the time, and I thought it was going to prevent me from doing as well as I did.”

Last Monday, Martire had a midterm from 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning before rushing over to the Murr Center to play her quarterfinal match at 10:30 against Virginia’s Jen Tuchband. Martire still won convincingly in two sets, 6-1, 6-3.

At that match, Martire’s father suprised her by flying in from New Jersey to watch her play.

“He called me when he was at his hotel in Boston,” Martire said. “I was actually confused at first, but it was great to have him there.”

Martire eventually fell to Muth in the finals, but remains confident despite the defeat.

“There’s only so many matches that you can play your best tennis in,” Martire said. “[Muth] played well and deserved to win the match.”

Martire faces Alexis Gordon of Florida today in preliminary action. Gordon defeated teammate Julia Scaringe in the Southern regionals, and will also play doubles with Scaringe in Dallas.

Bergman, who was the Eastern regional champion last year, fell in the quarterfinals this year to Maryland’s Delila Causevic.

“I was pretty disappointed at how I ended up doing,” Bergman said. “I simply got outplayed in the match. ... There are a lot of things I did well. I can’t dwell on that loss.”

However, as a result of her strong play over the course of the season, Bergman received an at-large bid for the national tournament.

Bergman will play Urska Juric of Missouri today. Urska fell to Alicia Pillay of Missouri 6-4, 6-3 in the Central regional.

Martire and Bergman lead Harvard’s outstanding sophomore class that has improved significantly since last season and has produced some spectacular performances over the last few months.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we have a year under our belts,” Martire said. “We are much more prepared and not so overwhelmed by the academic and athletic load.”

Many of the sophomores also had difficulty transitioning into the college style of play during their first year.

“Its hard to adjust to college tennis,” Bergman said. “It’s completely different from junior tennis. We’ve all adjusted a lot better this year.”

Susanna Lingman, also a sophomore, played solidly for the Crimson this season before bowing out in the semi-finals of Eastern regionals.

Lingman’s brother David, co-captain of the men’s team, will team up with Riddell in doubles action.

The two have performed well together this season, despite having only played with each other for less than a year.

“Mark and I are great friends,” Lingman said. “He’s the easiest partner I’ve ever had.”

Lingman and Riddell, who were seeded fourth entering regionals, beat the No. 1 team of Adil Shamasdin and Nick Goldberg of Brown in the championship match, 8-6.

They now move on to face Oliver Charroin and Chris Stewart of Arizona State in the first round of nationals today. Charroin and Stewart soundly beat Diego Acuna and Calle Hansen of Pepperdine 8-2 in regionals.

Lingman and Riddell had to come from behind to win in the semifinals and finals last week, and are looking to come out stronger at the outset in Dallas.

“We have had some slow starts,” Lingman said. “We haven’t played our best tennis yet.”

Both have also been hampered by injuries throughout the season.

“Hopefully we will be a bit healthier,” Lingman said. “We barely made it through regionals.”

Lingman and Riddell have spent this week fine-tuning their game in advance of their trip to Dallas.

“Returns are something we need to work on,” Lingman said. “We also have some specific plays that we practice. Overall, we’re solid and pretty ready.”