W. Tennis Moves On to Sweet 16

For the second time in three years, the No. 19 Harvard women’s tennis team made the NCAA Tournament Round of 16. The Crimson (19-6, 7-0 Ivy) knocked out second-round opponent Tennessee 4-1 Saturday, extending its winning streak to 11 straight matches.

“I was really proud of the way our team played,” Harvard coach Gordon Graham said. “We really are one of the top teams in the country.”

Although the No. 17 Lady Volunteers (15-9) outranked Harvard nationally and were seeded 16th overall in the NCAA draw, the Crimson put together a solid collective effort over more than three and a half hours of play to wear down its opponent.

“It was good to beat a team above us in ranking,” junior Eva Wang said. “We had a solid win over them and it definitely shows that we’re a top-10 team.”

Harvard’s dominance was apparent in doubles play, where all three squads jumped out to 3-0 leads and proceeded to win the necessary two matches to take the first point of the match in just under one hour.

The No. 1 duo of junior Melissa Anderson and freshman Celia Durkin, ranked 33rd in the nation, finished off the Lady Vols’ Sabita Maharaj and Ashley Robards by a score of 8-4. They had an opportunity to end the match sooner after taking a 7-2 lead, but Maharaj and Robards rallied to extend the match by two games.

Co-captain Susanna Lingman and Wang, who played in the No. 3 spot, led Tennessee 4-0 before they dropped four straight games, allowing the Lady Vols’ pair of Bryce Marable and Daron Moore back into contention. Not to be outdone, Lingman and Wang returned the favor to triumph 8-4 and clinch the doubles point for the Crimson.

Though co-captain Courtney Bergman and sophomore Elsa O’Riain led 6-3 in the No. 2 position, they also allowed Tennessee’s Melissa Schaub and Ghizela Schutte to take three straight games and tie the score at six. This match was left unfinished, however, due to the victories in the No. 1 and No. 3 spots.

Though the doubles matches ended quickly, it took longer than usual for the Crimson to wrap up singles play against a tenacious Lady Vols squad.

“Tennessee was very tough,” Durkin said. “They fought in every one of their spots.”

Harvard’s first player to finish was Wang, who fell behind 3-0 in the first set against Marable but surged ahead with twelve straight game victories to win 6-3, 6-0 in the No. 6 position. The Crimson received its third point from Lingman, who at No. 2 overpowered Tennessee’s Blakeley Griffith 6-4, 6-3.

Despite these quick victories, the match was far from over, as the Lady Vols scored first-set victories over Durkin and O’Riain at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively, as well as second-set wins over Bergman and Anderson at No. 1 and No. 5.

O’Riain’s first set against Robards went to a tiebreak after Robards came back from a 5-4 deficit. Though O’Riain was poised to win with a 6-3 lead, Robards earned five straight points to take the set, 7-6. O’Riain, still fuming over one of the referee’s calls during the tiebreak, was down 5-0 in the second set before getting on the board with a game victory. Robards, however, took the set and the match soon after by a score of 6-1.

Durkin also lost the first set of her match against the Lady Vols’ Vicky Jones, but took the second and third sets to win, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and clinch the overall match for the Crimson.

Bergman faced Tennessee’s Maharaj in the top singles spot and pulled out a 6-3 win in the first set before dropping the second set, 6-1. She led Maharaj 5-2 in the third set when her match was called due to the Crimson’s victory.

Anderson had the opportunity to clinch the team’s victory in her match against Schutte, as she won the first set 7-5 and led the second set 5-3, but her opponent fought back and captured the set by a score of 7-5. She was down 3-0 in the third set by the time Durkin defeated Jones.

“You have to give some credit to [Schutte],” Graham said. “It’s hard to come back like that, [and] Melissa is a very tough competitor.”

Harvard will face its most difficult opponent to date in its Sweet 16 match against No. 1 Stanford, which is undefeated on the season. The Crimson went head-to-head with the Cardinal (23-0) in February, and lost 5-2 despite strong performances by Durkin and Anderson in doubles and Wang and sophomore Preethi Mukundan in singles.

Though the odds on paper may not be in Harvard’s favor, the team is anxious for the rematch and believes that it has what it takes to pull an upset.

“I’m really thrilled for this match,” Durkin said. “We have so much confidence and have a better chance now than earlier in the year to win.”

The Crimson will take on Stanford on Thursday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.

—Staff writer Barbara R. Barreno can be reached at barreno@fas.harvard.edu.