Despite Varied Lineup, W. Tennis Still Cruises Past BU

The No. 35 Harvard women’s tennis team soundly defeated crosstown rival Boston University on Saturday, coasting to an easy 6-1 victory.

Taking a breather after a tough weekend road trip and in anticipation of a difficult swing through North Carolina, the squad used a varied lineup which allowed for some of the higher-ranked athletes to rest and a few of the younger players to compete.

“I think we just had a weekend to stay home in between big weekends that allowed some girls to play who don’t usually get to,” captain Sanja Bajin said.

Courtney Bergman and Susanna Lingman played only doubles, while Alexis Martire and Bajin limited their play to singles action. As a result, singles players moved up two slots with freshman Alli Pillinger and sophomore Ashley Hyotte filling the fifth and sixth positions. Hyotte and freshman Lyly Cao Minh filled the vacant doubles slot.

Despite the jumbled lineup, little could slow the Crimson (5-1) down, as the squad trounced the Terriers (2-1) in eight of nine matches, losing only a tough match in a tiebreak after the result had already been decided.

Harvard began with a strong effort in doubles, capturing a point with a three-match sweep.

In the second position, No. 39 freshman Eva Wang and classmate Melissa Anderson brushed aside BU’s tandem of Aimee Charest and Laura Ahmes 8-1 in under an hour. The dominant performance set the stage for each of the matches to follow.

The No. 31 duo Bergman and Lingman followed suit, dispelling its opponents, Lindsey Dynof and Elena deMendoza, in the No. 1 position 8-3.

Hyotte and Cao Minh made their debuts count as the pair defeated Alana Marcu and Elisa Glas 8-3 in the third position to close out the doubles competition, completing the sweep.

Hyotte maintained her strong personal effort as she captured the first singles point of the day for the Crimson, rolling over Ahmes 6-1, 6-0.

Harvard continued to dominate in singles competition, with each of the Crimson’s top four players besting their opponents.

In the No. 1 position, No. 53 Martire found herself squaring off against a familiar foe. Facing her down across the net was Dynof, with whom she had gone to high school and played against on several occasions prior to Saturday’s meeting.

“I feel like it puts a little more pressure on you because you know each other’s game so well,” Martire said. “It’s easier to go in not knowing anything about each other’s games.”

Martire transcended the additional tension, however, defeating Dynof 6-3, 6-3.

At the second position, Wang started slowly, but gradually gained momentum to close out her match 6-3, 6-0.

In the third position, Bajin gave herself a birthday present, closing out the competition in convincing fashion, winning 6-2, 6-2.

Although she performed strongly, Bajin admittedly had difficulty staying in the game mentally.

“It’s hard to stay focused when the pace is that slow,” she said.

Anderson quickly dispatched her opponent, closing her out 6-2, 6-1.

The only match in which the Crimson encountered difficulty was in the No. 5 position featuring Pillinger.

After winning a difficult first set 7-5, Pillinger dropped her second set by a score of 6-4. It was the only set Harvard lost on the weekend.

With the contest between the two schools already decided, Pillinger and her opponent, Glas, entered into a tiebreaker to decide the match and draw the day to its end.

Pillinger went on to drop the tiebreaker 10-4, giving BU its only match victory of the day.

Though the level of competition was low, the Crimson maintained its focus for much of the day and avoided falling victim to the temptation to look ahead to future challenges.

“You have to take every opponent seriously,” Martire said. “So we never really think about whether we’re going to win or lose.”

Adding extra incentive for the squad was the contest’s location—home—a place Harvard will rarely see this season.

“It was a little bit hard [to get up for the game],” Bajin said. “But it was our first home match of the season.”

The Crimson will hit the road again next weekend, when the team travels south to take on Old Dominion and No. 7 North Carolina.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.