W. Tennis Nears Ivy Title With Weekend Sweep

The No. 17 Harvard women’s tennis team (13-6, 4-0 Ivy) remained undefeated in the Ivy League and moved a step closer to its third consecutive league title after overpowering both Princeton and Penn by identical 7-0 scores.

“Penn and Princeton are two of the best Ivy League [teams],” junior Eva Wang said. “Everyone did really, really well.”

HARVARD 7, PRINCETON 0

Princeton (8-7, 3-2) fought Harvard right from the start Saturday but couldn’t overcome the Crimson’s superior talent, as Harvard combined power with finesse to shut out the Tigers and win its 20th-straight Ivy League match.

“Our team played tough mentally and was able to play out the important points,” sophomore Preethi Mukundan said.

Harvard won its first doubles match in only 30 minutes, as co-captain Susanna Lingman and Wang defeated Princeton’s Joanna Roth and Darcy Robertson 8-3 at the No. 2 position after getting off to a 3-0 start.

The Crimson’s No. 1 and No. 3 doubles pairs had a harder time finishing off their opponents. At one point, both matches were tied 5-5, but the No. 1 duo of co-captain Courtney Bergman and sophomore Elsa O’Riain made several crisp winners en route to an 8-6 win, clinching the doubles point. At the third spot, junior Melissa Anderson and freshman Stephanie Schnitter dug themselves out of a 7-5 hole to triumph, 9-7.

“We did a really good job but were shaky in doubles,” Harvard coach Gordon Graham said. “We made it harder on ourselves than we needed to.”

In singles, one Harvard player after another closed out her match without much difficulty, as no more than three games were given up in a set.

“We focused on finishing people off and not letting them back in matches,” Graham said.

Bergman at No. 1 and Lingman at No. 2 were the first to finish their matches against the Tigers’ Jessica Seibel and Robertson, winning by scores of 6-1, 6-1 and 6-2, 6-1, respectively.

Mukundan and Schnitter followed at the No. 5 and No. 6 spots, as Mukundan rolled over Princeton’s Roth 6-0, 6-3 while Schnitter prevailed against Laura Trimble 6-2, 6-0.

Senior Alexis Martire at the No. 3 position defeated Alison Hashmall 6-1, 6-3 and No. 4 Anderson wrapped up the match with her 6-3, 6-3 win over Ivana King.

Freshman Celia Durkin was missing from the court Saturday due to a wrist injury she sustained from the match against Penn. Wang and O’Riain sat out from singles play due to their respective foot and knee injuries.

HARVARD 7, PENN 0

Although Penn (9-6, 3-2) was coming off a loss to Princeton, the Crimson was prepared for a tough match against the Quakers, its biggest Ivy rival.

Despite making a few blunders in doubles and playing a couple of three-set matches in singles, Harvard recovered to win each of its matches against Penn Friday.

“There were some tight matches,” Durkin said. “Everyone did a solid job.”

Like Saturday, the No. 2 doubles match was completed in about half an hour, but it was the pair of O’Riain and Bergman who did it this time, winning 8-1.

Penn’s Kate Williams and Caroline Stanislawski were down 5-2 before tying up their match against Harvard’s Lingman and Wang at the No. 3 position. Lingman and Wang managed to pull away from the Quakers and clinch the doubles point with an 8-6 victory.

“We knew Penn would be our toughest opponent,” O’Riain added. “Every match was competitive.”

Anderson and Durkin had a 6-3 lead, but allowed the Quakers’ Shelah Chao and Julia Koulbitskaya to even the score. It took a tiebreak for the Crimson to win the match 9-8 (5), but Durkin had a nasty fall toward the end, injuring her wrist and keeping her out of singles competition.

It was business at usual in the No. 1 singles position, as Bergman defeated Penn’s Yulia Rivelis 6-2, 6-2. At No. 2, Lingman had a routine first set victory at 6-2, but only won her match against Koulbitskaya after a 7-6 tiebreak victory in the second set.

Mukundan won the Crimson’s third singles match of the day by defeating Kate Williams 6-3, 6-2. While Anderson at the No. 4 position was down 3-0 in the first set, she bounced back and finished the match with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Caroline Stanislawski.

Both Martire at No. 3 and Schnitter at No. 6 fell in the first set, but Martire fought back in the second and third sets to triumph, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5. Since Harvard had clinched the match by the time Schnitter won her second set, a super tiebreak was played and she won that to beat Sarah Schiffman 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (4).

The Crimson returns to action tomorrow when it faces Boston College at the Beren Tennis Center.

“We’re definitely looking forward to playing them this year,” Mukundan said. “They’re a pretty strong team.”

Harvard hopes to avenge the 5-2 loss it faced at BC last year and extend its winning streak to six games.