Women's Tennis Dispatches Yale, 6-1

There is one unmistakable anomaly in the Harvard women’s tennis results this school year—a shorthanded 4-0 defeat to Yale in the October ECAC semifinals. Yesterday afternoon the Crimson reversed that result and reaffirmed why it ranks No. 18 in the nation while Yale ranks far below.

Harvard (13-3, 3-0 Ivy) posted a dominant 6-1 victory over the No. 54 Bulldogs (10-2, 0-1). The Crimson swept the doubles matches and none of the No. 2 through No. 5 singles matches were any closer than 6-3, 6-3.

In the earlier Yale match, four of Harvard’s top six competitors were inactive due to a combination of injuries and the All-American Championships in California. Yale went on to win the ECAC title that Harvard had earned a year ago. While that fall result counts for the ITA national rankings—and consequently inflates Yale’s ranking—it does not count for NCAA selection and seeding consideration.

“We definitely wanted some revenge so we were pretty excited,” said sophomore Alexis Martire, who competed at both All-Americans and ECACs in the fall. “Every Ivy match is pretty exciting.”

The only blemish yesterday was at No. 1 singles, where sophomore No. 42 Courtney Bergman fell in a third set tiebreak to Yale No. 87 Elizabeth Kaufman, 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (6).

Bergman has been hurting recently with what she believes to be stress fractures in her shins. She missed Saturday’s match with Dartmouth and struggled with her movement yesterday, though she stopped short of attributing her defeat entirely to injury.

“I should have been able to play a lot better than I did,” Bergman said. “It definitely wasn’t all my shins.”

Bergman was frustrated right from the beginning of the match.

“[Kaufman] was really aggressive, and she came up with some good shots,” she said. “I don’t feel like I’m moving well at all. I’m just making a lot of errors. I’m not comfortable out there right now.”

Bergman showed resilience in bouncing back to take the second set. With Harvard having clinched the victory over Yale, the match came down to a single tiebreak. But Kaufman emerged victorious, dealing Bergman her second loss to a ranked opponent in a third-set tiebreak this season.

“Whenever it goes to a third-set tiebreaker it’s up in the air when you’re not playing it out, especially against someone who serves that big,” Bergman said. “There were a couple of free points for her here and there.”

Bergman’s health is the big question mark for the rest of the Ivy season. Harvard plays at unranked Columbia and Cornell this weekend, followed by a huge home weekend against No. 70 Princeton and No. 44 Penn, the defending Ivy champion.

Bergman said she really wants to play all the Ivy matches, especially against Princeton and Penn, but she could not foresee whether she will be playing this upcoming weekend.

“We need her, so hopefully she’ll be fine and healthy,” Martire said.

While Bergman has been disappointed with her individual results, her team has established itself as the clear Ivy favorite with its performance over the past two months. Going by the ITA team rankings released yesterday, Harvard has beaten three top 25 teams—No. 7 Washington, No. 21 Fresno State and No. 25 Miami.

If Harvard makes NCAAs, Bergman will have plenty of time to heal. The Ivy season ends in mid-April and NCAAs begin in early May.

“We think we’ll get into NCAAs regardless, but we still want to win all these matches,” Bergman said. “We’re definitely capable of doing it and everyone else seems healthy.”

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.