‘High-Energy’ William & Mary Gives Women's Tennis Its Seventh Straight Loss

Seven matches into its season, the winless Harvard women’s tennis team has already lost as many matches as the 2005 and 2006 squads dropped overall.

Faced with yet another top opponent, the No. 61 Crimson (0-7) fell, 6-1, to No. 10 William and Mary (9-0) Friday afternoon in the Murr Center.

“William and Mary is high-energy. They’re really enthusiastic; they’re constantly shouting, ‘Go Tribe,’” Harvard coach Gordon Graham said. “And on top of that, they’re just a really good team.”

The outstanding play of the Crimson’s youngsters proved one of the match’s few bright spots.

In the second singles position, freshman Lena Litvak took on No. 51 Katarina Zoricic in the day’s longest match.

Litvak won the first set in a tiebreak, only to see Zoricic rebound for a 5-2 lead in the second.

Litvak rallied back to trailing only 5-4 before Zoricic closed out the set.

The two played a 15-point tiebreak to decide the third set. Litvak jumped to a 9-3 lead, before closing out the match, 10-5.

Freshman Elizabeth Brook played an equally competitive match at No. 4 singles against the Tribe’s Barbara Zidek. Brook lost the first set, 7-5, and the second, 6-2, in a match featuring long and dramatic rallies.

“Our freshman were awesome,” Graham said. “I think Lizzie Brook played the best I’ve seen her play at Harvard. She almost got the first set and was in every single game in the second set.”

In addition to her narrow singles loss, Brook teamed with captain Preethi Mukundan to capture the only doubles win of the day for the Crimson with an 8-4 win over Magdalena Bresson and Ragini Acharya.

In the top doubles slot, the No. 1 duo of Megan Moulton-Levy and Zoricic downed Harvard’s pairing of Litvak and sophomore Beier Ko, 8-3.

Former club players senior Julia Forgie and junior Vilsa Curto fell to William and Mary’s Carmen Pop and Lauren Sabacinski, 8-3.

At No. 1 singles, Ko lost to No. 6 Moulton-Levy 6-4, 6-1.

Mukundan, Forgie, and Curto also lost in straight sets.

“All this competition against really highly ranked teams is going to make us better for the future,” Graham said. “They’re all tough matches.”

Harvard is in the difficult position of trying to assimilate new players and recover from injuries while playing one of the toughest schedules in the country.

Litvak’s present condition reflects the team’s struggles.

“I keep getting injured and coming back, and my body isn’t in the greatest shape,” Litvak said. “In my match, I got tired, and I let her back into the match in the second set.”

“But I closed it out,” she added. “I feel my tennis is really improving.”

A week off will provide an opportunity for the Crimson to recover and train. Harvard returns to the courts next Tuesday against UMass-Amherst.

NOTE: Bad weather in Chicago led to airport delays and a cancellation of yesterday’s scheduled match against Northwestern.

—Staff writer Tyler D. Sipprelle can be reached at sipprell@fas.harvard.edu.