SPORTS BRIEF: Women’s tennis team dominates Big Green to capture Ivy League title

The No. 17 Harvard women’s tennis team went into yesterday’s match against Dartmouth with at least a share of the Ivy League title but left the match as the one and only Ivy League Champion after beating the Big Green 6-1 at the Boss Tennis Center. The Crimson ended its regular season with an 18-6 overall record and a 7-0 record in the Ivy League.

In doubles play, all three of Harvard’s teams defeated their opponents. Junior Elsa O’Riain and senior Melissa Anderson, ranked 2nd nationally and the Crimson’s top doubles team, prevailed over the Big Green’s Natalie O’Rourke and Megan Zebroski 8-4.

Senior Eva Wang and sophomore Stephanie Schnitter also won by an 8-4 margin in the No. 2 position against Kerry Snow and Lindsay Winingham. In No. 3 doubles, freshman Laura Peterzan and junior Preethi Mukundan beat Dartmouth’s Ann Scott and Jamie Caplan by a score of 8-2.

Peterzan won Harvard’s first singles match after overpowering Winingham 6-1, 6-0 in the No. 2 spot. Anderson and Schnitter in the third and fifth courts followed shortly after with 6-0, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-1 wins, respectively.

Wang in No. 1 singles won the first set of her match 7-5 and cruised to a 6-3 victory over Zebroski. Junior Cindy Chu at No. 6 gave the Crimson its sixth point of the match when she defeated Katie Jaxheimer 6-4, 6-4. Mukundan suffered the only loss of the match when she fell to Caplan 3-6, 6-2, 10-7.

Harvard submitted a bid to host the first and second rounds of the 2006 NCAA Championships and will learn the decision on May 3. If able to host, it will be the third year in a row for the Crimson, which reached the Round of 16 of the tournament last year.