W. Tennis Takes on Ivies

Winning and the Ivy League have become one and the same for the Harvard women’s tennis team—which, for the past two seasons, has gone undefeated in the Ancient Eight, and often has beaten its Ivy foes by a score of 7-0. The Crimson (9-6) will look to reassert that dominance in New York this weekend as it hits the road to take on Cornell (9-3, 1-0 Ivy) this afternoon and Columbia (6-3, 0-1 Ivy) on Saturday.

“[Winning the Ivies] is something that we’re completely expecting to do,” co-captain Courtney Bergman said. “It’s going to be about taking care of business, getting out there and working really hard for NCAAs.”

As the team has come to know well, the champion of the Ivy League automatically advances to the NCAA tournament, where the Crimson has gone as far as the Round of 16 (against Stanford in 2003). This season, with defeats of teams such as No. 8 Georgia Tech and No. 14 North Carolina and close losses against No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Northwestern, the hopes of advancement are high.

To keep that opportunity open, however, Harvard must pass its first Ivy test against teams that are ready to battle the Crimson.

“Everybody we play [in the Ivies] is anxious to play us and plays their best match of the year against us,” head coach Gordon Graham said.

Cornell began the Ivy season strong, defeating Columbia, 4-3, on April 2. The team, which is led by first-year coach Laura Glitz, is pleased with its results thus far and is looking forward to upsetting the perennial favorites.

“Our team’s been doing really well. Since we won [against Columbia] we felt we started off on a good note,” said Akane Kokubo, the Big Red’s No. 1 singles player.

Although Columbia lost its first Ivy League match, the Lions are optimistic about the rest of the season, beginning with the chance to knock off Harvard.

“We’re really excited for the match,” captain Miriam Rahali said. “We’re going to give it our best shot and see what happens.”

Over the past two seasons, Harvard’s record against Cornell and Columbia has been all but perfect, as the Crimson shut out Columbia 7-0 and beat Cornell 5-2 last season and shut out both teams in 2003.

With that in mind, the NCAAs are Harvard’s primary objective, and the team is therefore viewing this weekend, and the Ivy season as a whole, as an opportunity to tune up its play for the big tournament.

“We are using the Ivy season as a training period for the NCAAs,” junior Eva Wang said. “However, we are not overlooking any team in the Ivy League.”

As the start of the Ivy season approaches, the Crimson has identified inconsistency as a factor in its preseason losses and has placed a high priority on staying healthy, as injuries have occurred across the lineup.

“We’ve had a few matches where everybody’s been playing pretty well, but it hasn’t happened consistently across all the matches,” Graham said.

“Getting everybody playing up to their potential and having everybody healthy at the same time [is crucial],” she added

Though injuries have sidelined multiple Crimson starters at several points during the preseason, the team’s top-shelf talent has managed to overcome health issues to keep winning.

“We all have enough confidence in our team that even if someone’s missing, someone else can fill in,” Bergman said. “We have such depth in our program that it’s not as hard a blow.”

It will take more than depth, however, for the Crimson to make its customary run through the Ivy League.

If the team avoids major injuries and plays up to expectations, it should once again head to the NCAA tournament in its quest to capture the ultimate title—a quest that begins this afternoon in Ithaca.