Women's Tennis Tests Its Talent

The Harvard women’s tennis team got in some valuable early-season matches at the United States Tennis Association’s National Tennis Center Invitational in Flushing, N.Y. this weekend.

And the second tournament with new coach Traci Green at the helm went down as a success.

The Crimson played a total of 20 singles matches and nine doubles matches throughout Saturday and Sunday. The fall season is typically used as a warm-up for the more important spring season, and the team was happy to have the opportunity to play a high volume of matches in a competitive setting.

“Everyone walked away with a little more experience and with an idea of what to work on,” said senior Vilsa Curto, who is also a Crimson photography editor.

According to Curto, the team is viewing the beginning of the year as a “fresh start for everyone—a clean slate.”

Under Green, Harvard is looking to put last spring’s 4-16 record behind it and return to winning ways. Prior to the disappointment of last year, the Crimson had won four conference championships in a row.

Harvard has many new faces in the mix this fall. Along with Green, the squad includes four freshmen.

The relative inexperience of the team makes tournaments like this extremely useful, and the players said they were pleased with their weekend’s work.

Particularly encouraging was the play of freshman Agnes Sibilski.

Playing in the top singles flight of the tournament, Sibilski won her first two matches, beating a seeded opponent as well as a fellow freshman from Yale. In the end, she went down to one of the tournament’s top players.

Not only have the rookies on the team been impressive on the court, but their presence in the locker room has also been very positive.

“It feels like the freshmen have been here for a while,” said captain Stephanie Schnitter, who teamed up with Sibilski in the top doubles flight. “We already have a strong team dynamic.”

Schnitter and Sibilski won two of their three matches over the weekend. Despite losing in the first round, 8-4, to the top-seeded pair, they only dropped one game in their final two matches.

In her singles draw, Schnitter won her first-round match in straight sets before losing a tough match in the second round to the No. 1 seed from Texas A&M, 7-5, 6-3.

She bounced back, though, to win her final match in convincing fashion, 6-0, 6-1.

The tournament was set up with five different levels of singles competition (labeled A though E) and two levels of doubles (A and B). The Crimson entered two players in singles flights A, B, and D, one player in singles flight C, two teams in doubles flight A, and one team in doubles flight B.

Although the tournament finished yesterday, no Crimson player or pairing advanced far enough in the draw to play past Sunday.

However, Harvard’s overall feeling from the weekend was clearly positive.

“It definitely gave us something to build on,” Schnitter said.

Next up for the Crimson is the Intercollegiate Tennis Association East Regional Individuals on Oct. 19-23.