Crimson’s Losing Streak Continues

The losing streak just won’t end for Harvard women’s tennis. With a 5-2 defeat at the hands of No. 60 Marshall (12-3), the Crimson (0-9) dropped its ninth consecutive match to start the season. Harvard pulled out two singles victories Friday at the Murr Center but relinquished the doubles point and could not stay competitive in all the individual matches. The Thundering Herd is the seventh ranked opponent the Crimson has played this year.

Over the last few weeks, Harvard has not been at full strength. Injuries and sickness have plagued the team.

“Our biggest problem is being healthy,” Green said. “Everybody’s fighting hard out there but we’ve got to get healthy as a team. Even though we have the right soldiers, we have to get the soldiers out there ready to go.”

Midway through the doubles portion, it looked like Harvard had a chance to earn the point. With a big Crimson lead in the No. 2 position, the doubles point came down to the No. 3 contest. At that spot, junior Laura Peterzan and senior Vilsa Curto—who is also a former associate photography executive—kept the match even at 4-4, but the two then dropped nine straight points, mostly on unforced errors. The final score went down as an 8-4 loss.

“Their match could have gone either way,” Green said. “The great thing about their play was that they were trying to be aggressive. The errors were aggressive errors.”

The No. 1 pair of captain Stephanie Schnitter and junior Catriona Stewart also fell to the Herd. Their 8-2 loss gave Marshall the doubles point. The No. 2 pair of junior Beier Ko and freshman Samantha Rosekrans earned an 8-3 victory, but the outcome was meaningless to the match score.

The Herd, with a 1-0 team lead, jumped out to a quick start in the singles portion claiming five out of the first six sets. The No. 5 and No. 6 matches finished quickly in straight sets. In the No. 5 slot, Stewart was ousted 6-2, 6-0, and at No. 6, Curto suffered a 6-1, 6-0 defeat.

Ko, coming off a huge 6-3, 6-3 win over the sixth-ranked player in the nation, fell to Marshall’s Kellie Schmitt 6-2, 6-3. Ko, like many of her teammates, was injured and sick on Friday.

“Everybody’s suffering from a little bit of injury and sickness,” Ko said. “If everybody is healthy and our lineup is complete, then we should have a good chance of winning.”

The two wins of the day came from the No. 2 and No. 4 positions. At No. 2, Peterzan defeated Jeanne Schwartz 6-4, 6-0 and at No. 4 Rosekrans rebounded from early struggles to take the victory 3-6, 6-4, 10-6. Despite the freshman’s impressive resilience, the overall outcome had been decided before the end of her match.

Next week the team will get some needed rest before heading off to California for spring break.

“Everybody is sick, injured, or something,” Green said. “Spring break is going to help us with some days off to rest up a little bit.”

The squad will also be looking for its first win as it plays three matches in a week against tough competition.

“It’s a break for us to improve again,” Ko said. “Hopefully we can take one of the teams there. That would be great.”

Although this streak of losses has been rough on the team, Harvard will stick with its current lineup and look for better results in the Ivy League season.

“We’re sticking to our guns,” Green said. “The key thing is our schedule. Our girls are beat up and we’ve been playing tough weekend matches. Ivy league is a little bit different.”

The Crimson will be back in action Tuesday, March 25 at San Diego State.

—Staff writer Jake I. Fisher can be reached at jifisher@fas.harvard.edu.