Green's Young Squad Still Learning

The Harvard women’s tennis team faced tough competition this weekend at the Harvard Invitational, but its constantly improving play led it to success on the final morning.

The Crimson welcomed Texas A&M, Illinois, and North Carolina State to the Murr Center on Friday for three days of round-robin play. It was the last tournament of the fall season for Harvard.

“We were outmatched in a lot of matches,” coach Traci Green said, “but people did a good job of trying to do the things they worked on in practice.”

The Crimson had only two singles victories on the first day of the tournament. Senior captain Stephanie Schnitter defeated Anna Blagodarova of Texas A&M, 6-4, 1-6, (10-7) in flight A, and freshman Samantha Rosekrans beat the Aggies’ Michelle Sammons, 5-7, 6-4, (10-7) in flight B.

Harvard came up empty in the first day’s doubles matches, with Schnitter and freshman Agnes Sibilski coming closest to a win, but eventually falling to Texas A&M’s Blagodarova and Tiffany Clifford, 9-7.

Saturday belonged to Sibilski, as the freshman walked away with two victories. She defeated Illinois’ Leigh Finnegan, 6-2, 6-3, in flight A singles, and then teamed up with Schnitter to convincingly beat the Fighting Illini pair of Christina Stromberg and Alejandra Meza Cuadra, 8-0.

“Agnes did a great job all weekend fighting through matches against tough opponents,” assistant coach Julia Scaringe said.

Nobody else was able to summon a victory on Day 2 of the event, although Rosekrans played a close match with Illinois’ Kristina Minor. After winning the first set, Rosekrans fell in the supertiebreak, 4-6, 7-5, (10-2).

Schnitter gave the Fighting Illini’s freshman star Megan Fudge, currently ranked 120th in the nation, a fight, but Fudge came out on top after two sets, 6-4, 6-4.

The Crimson enjoyed more success yesterday, however, as the team rallied to take four of six singles matches from NC State.

Sibilski, at No. 1 singles, earned her third victory of the tournament by defeating the Wolfpack’s Lenka Hojckova in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.

Schnitter won, 6-2, 4-6, (10-5), while Rosekrans picked up her second singles win of the weekend, defeating the Wolfpack’s Kristen Bleakely in three sets, 2-6, 6-3, (10-2).

Senior Vilsa Curto, who is also a Crimson photography editor, also picked up a victory at the No. 6 spot.

Harvard’s slow start to the tournament could be attributed to the long periods between competitions during the fall season. Although four women represented the Crimson at ITA East Regionals two weeks ago, it was the first tournament in nearly a month for their teammates.

“It was tough for most of the players to get going,” Sibilski said. “But it seemed like everyone was getting better from match to match.”

Harvard now enters its long midseason break before resuming play in the spring.

“We have to carry over the great things they did this weekend and the improvements they made,” Scaringe said.

The Crimson’s focus will shift from individual performance to the full-team effort needed to be successful in dual matches in the spring.

“We have to improve our overall team energy,” Green said.

But, despite the work to be done, the team is celebrating its success and improvement.

“It was a pretty good end to the fall season,” Sibilski said.