Crimson Roll, Continue Ivy Dominance

The No. 18 Harvard women’s tennis team guaranteed itself at least a share of the Ivy League title after beating Yale 6-1 on the road and Brown 7-0 at home this past weekend. The Crimson remains undefeated in the Ivy League (6-0) and now holds a 17-6 overall record.

“These were two pretty convincing wins,” co-captain Elsa O’Riain said. “We now have the joint title and there’s almost no chance we won’t win 7-0 on Tuesday.”

HARVARD 7, BROWN 0

While the Bears put forth a strong effort yesterday at the Murr Center, they could not hold their own against the Crimson, who won the doubles point and all six singles matches to shut out Brown.

“[Yesterday] we took care of business,” Harvard coach Gordon Graham said. “We like playing indoors and we were pretty fired up for the seniors’ last match [at home].”

O’Riain and co-captain Melissa Anderson, ranked No. 2 nationally in doubles, recorded an 8-2 win against Brown’s Kelly Kirkpatrick and Ashley Pariser. Senior Eva Wang and sophomore Stephanie Schnitter clinched the doubles point after a tough 8-5 match against Amanda Saiontz and Michelle Pautler.

The Bears’ Brett Finklestein and Daisy Ames beat junior Cindy Chu and senior Lily Cao Minh 8-4 for Brown’s only win.

Anderson reached 20 singles victories on the season when she defeated Pariser 6-0, 6-1 in the fourth position to get the Crimson rolling. Schnitter, who leads the team in singles with a 21-1 record, prevailed over Sarah Mansur by a score of 6-4, 6-1 in the No. 5 spot. Freshman Laura Peterzan clinched Harvard’s overall victory when she defeated Saiontz 6-0, 6-3. Wang closed out her match against Ames 6-2, 6-0 on the first court while junior Preethi Mukundan, who sat out a few matches prior to yesterday’s match due to illness, beat Finklestein 6-3, 6-2 in the fourth court.

HARVARD 6, YALE 1

Harvard battled for every point against Yale on Friday, as each doubles match was contested and four out of six singles matches were decided in three sets, but the end result was the Crimson’s fifth straight Ivy win.

“With Yale you never know what’s going to happen, but we had a good match,” O’Riain said.

The Crimson led the Bulldogs 7-6 in each doubles match before O’Riain and Anderson finished off Rashmee Patil and Olivia Nix by an 8-6 margin. Yale evened the score of the remaining two matches at 7-7 but Wang and Schnitter in the No. 2 spot clinched the doubles point with a 9-7 win against Aimee Kim and Christina Cutter. Mukundan and Peterzan followed in the third position with a 9-7 victory over Lindsey Dashiell and Janet Kim.

Harvard’s seniors claimed the first two points in singles, giving the team a 3-0 lead as Anderson at No. 4 singles defeated Ashley Miles 6-0, 6-3, and Wang prevailed in the No. 1 spot over Patil by a score of 6-3, 6-1.

Though the Crimson won the first sets of each match, Yale took the second sets of the remaining four matches to set up a precarious situation for Harvard, starting with No. 2 O’Riain’s 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 defeat to Kim.

Schnitter, however, pulled out the first three-set victory for the Crimson and clinched the team’s overall victory as she beat Nix 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-2 in the fifth position. No. 6 Chu added to Harvard’s total with her 7-6(2), 5-7, 4-1 win over Cutter. Peterzan at No. 3 gave Harvard its six and final point by defeating Kim by a score of 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5).

The Crimson will play its final league match on the road against Dartmouth tomorrow. A victory would assure Harvard the sole right to the Ivy crown.

“It’ll be a closer match at Dartmouth, but if we take care of business we will be fine,” Graham said.

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