No. 39 W. Tennis Sweeps BU, UMass

A week after nearly upsetting the second-best team in the country, the Harvard women’s tennis team rolled to consecutive 7-0 victories on Saturday against local opponents.

No. 39 Harvard had shown it could compete at the highest national level when it hosted No. 2 Duke last weekend at the Murr Tennis Center. The Crimson was just barely edged out 4-3 by the Blue Devils.

So, taking on two much weaker teams, BU and UMass, hardly proved challenging—not even with the matches taking place just hours apart.

“We don’t usually play two teams on the same day,” senior Jennie Timoney said. “We spread it out so we didn’t all play both matches. But a couple of people were sore in the morning.”

While a few Crimson players had faced BU and UMass opponents in earlier invitational tournaments, this was the first team meeting between the schools.

In the morning, Harvard took on crosstown foe, BU. Freshmen Courtney Bergman and Susanna Lingman paired up to defeat Elena deMendoza and Hannah Bartell 8-2 at No. 2 doubles. Seniors Fleur Broughton and Sarah McGinty earned a victory in No. 3 doubles to secure the overall doubles point for Harvard.

Harvard cruised through the singles as well, with Lingman, Timoney and junior Lara Naqushbandi gaining straight-set victories. Only Bergman, playing at No. 1, had any difficulty.

Facing the Terriers’ Christina Causway, Bergman dropped the first set 6-2. But she stormed back to win the second set 6-2, and pulled out a long tiebreaker to finish off Causway. The Crimson also gained points at No. 2 and 4 singles when BU opponents retired to make the final score 7-0.

At 5 p.m. that afternoon, Harvard returned to the Murr to take on UMass, which had been a surprise entrant in the 2001 NCAA Tournament. The Minutewomen were playing their first match of the spring and proved to be no contest for the Crimson, who swept every position.

Broughton and McGinty moved up to play No. 1 doubles and defeated the team of Jafra Depontes and Stephanie Price, 8-1. The Crimson picked up two other easy doubles victory to gain the doubles point.

Junior Sanja Bajin took Bergman’s spot at No. 1 singles in the UMass match. Bajin cleaned up easily, beating Helena Horak 6-2, 6-2.

The Crimson did not drop one set against the Minutewomen. Naqushbandi and Timoney, playing at No. 3 and 4 singles respectively, each won 7-5, 6-0.

Meanwhile, two Crimson freshmen who did not compete against BU scored big wins at the lower positions. Christina Chen goose-egged Ashley Smith 6-0, 6-0, at the No. 5 spot. Elizabeth Gass, who had paired with Timoney at No. 3 doubles, also got a chance to play No. 6 singles, capitalizing with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Allison Hagenbush.

“[These matches] were a confidence-booster,” said freshman Alexis Martire, who beat Depontes at No. 2 singles, 6-1, 6-2. “It’s emotionally tiring to keep focused playing there the whole day.”

Harvard now sports a 2-1 spring team record and will travel for two months before playing its next home match. The team will next travel to South Carolina to face Georgia Tech and the host Gamecocks next Sunday. In upcoming weeks, the Crimson will also compete in Florida and California, all against nationally-ranked opponents.

“We’re excited about going on the road,” Timoney said. “We haven’t played outside in a while.”

The Crimson will head down south on Friday to get some outdoor practice before starting competition.