Doubles Duo Delivers in Clutch

Boasting a No. 4 national ranking in doubles, it’s no surprise that team co-captains Elsa O’Riain and Melissa Anderson have paced No. 13 Harvard women’s tennis to a surprising and fast start this season.

On Sunday at the Murr Center Courts, it was a surprise the doubles team waited so long to show it.

O’Riain and Anderson keyed a hard-fought 4-3 over No. 24 South Carolina (6-2), but it was not until the seventh game of the pair’s opening doubles round match that this fact began to take shape.

Down 5-1 and a break point in their match against the Gamecocks’ No.1 team of Natasa Vukovic and Gira Schofield, Anderson and O’Riain showed why they have been ranked No. 4 by taking their game to new heights.

On break point during that pivotal seventh game, O’Riain stabbed at a ball with a lunging volley that landed just over the net, leading to a put-away winner from partner Anderson.

From that point on, the duo went on a tear to even the score at 6-6. After splitting the next four games, the team dominated in the tiebreak, pulling away from the Gamecocks tandem to win 9-8 (8-5)

“The doubles was a trigger point for our success,” O’Riain said. “The girls we were playing would hit slow, so halfway through we decided to go for it more and really play on our toes.”

The co-captains continued their dominance in singles, gaining two key victories. O’Riain won, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 2 and Anderson completed a 6-1, 6-4 rout at No. 4 just minutes after O’Riain’s match had completed. The co-captains were first off the court, giving Harvard a 3-0 lead it would never relinquish.

“It’s huge to get this win,” said O’Riain. “They’re a good team, and to get our confidence, we really needed this so we wouldn’t go on a slide like last year.”

It was an important victory for the Crimson to avoid a three-game losing streak after losses last weekend to No. 8 Northwestern and No. 15 Notre Dame.

“They were good teams last weekend,” senior Eva Wang said.

“But to play well and pull out a close match today was definitely a rebound for us,” she added.

Wang also posted a strong performance to spur the team’s victory. At No.2 doubles, Wang and teammate Stephanie Schnitter routed the Gamecocks, 8-2, behind tremendous serving from Wang and all-around stellar volleys form both players.

With the doubles point in hand and following Anderson and O’Riain’s respective routes, Schnitter assured Harvard’s victory in pulling off a tough 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 match at No. 6.

And the close match may have been just what the Crimson needed.

“[The team] expected to win today,” Harvard coach Gordon Graham said. “[The close win] was a little bit of a wake-up call to the fact that there are a lot of really good teams out there who we cannot take lightly.”

Yesterday, freshman Beier Ko remained out of the starting lineup, while fellow freshman Laura Peterzan started despite a leg injury that kept her out of last weekend’s matches.

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.