Women’s tennis opens 2005-06 season; O’Riain and Anderson win doubles draw

The three-time defending Ivy League champion Harvard women’s tennis team christened its 2005-06 season this past weekend at the Cissie Leary Memorial Tournament in Philadelphia.

Harvard sent nine players to the eight-team invitational, hosted by Penn, to compete in both the singles draw, which had a field of 64, and the 32-pair doubles draw.

The team of junior Elsa O’Riain and senior Melissa Anderson, seeded number two, was victorious in the doubles draw. O’Riain and Anderson defeated a pair from Marshall University in the finals.

“I’d never played with Melissa before [in doubles],” O’Riain said. “We meshed really well—we played three pretty good teams the last few days.”

The Crimson had several entrants advance deep into the singles draw as well. Anderson, a 5-8 seed, made it to the round of four before falling to Yulia Rivelis of Penn. Junior Preethi Mukundan, the top seed, was beaten in the quarterfinals, and 5-8 seed O’Riain lost in the round of 16.

The Crimson’s individual tournament schedule continues next weekend with the beginning of the Riviera/ITA All-Americans in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

—CALEB W. PEIFFER