Rough Year All Around for Crimson

The Harvard women’s tennis program isn’t used to failure. Since 1983, the Crimson has won 17 Ivy League championships and has never encountered back-to-back losing seasons.

In 2008, however, Harvard had its second consecutive losing campaign in the Ancient Eight and went winless in its non-conference schedule.

Although the Crimson did not have the type of final standing it had hoped for, the team became more competitive at the end of the year. The squad’s Ivy League record could have easily been 5-2 instead of 2-5 since three of its defeats came by a single point.

“Overall, we as a team played most of our better tennis towards the latter part of the season,” said first-year head coach Traci Green. “I saw great improvement by most everyone.”

At the start of the spring season, Harvard demonstrated that it had the potential to do some damage in the Ivies when it nearly knocked off No. 57 Southern Methodist University in a 4-3 loss at home.

But over the course of the preseason, injuries and illness broke up the starting lineup and prevented the Crimson from competing at the top of its game. The squad dropped close matches to Wisconsin and Boston University and suffered convincing losses to seven ranked opponents.

“It can be easy to slip into feeling that losses mean you’re not making progress,” junior Laura Peterzan said after Harvard’s loss to No. 16 William and Mary. “It’s important to bear in mind we are playing incredibly strong teams. This is all making us stronger.”

Against No. 1 Northwestern, the Crimson fell 6-1 after junior Beier Ko earned the only point with a straight set victory over the No. 6 singles player in the nation.

Ko, who went 10-8 to lead Harvard in winning percentage on the season, finished the year ranked No. 93 in the nation. She was named to the All-Ivy First Team in singles and was an All-Ivy Honorable Mention in doubles with freshman partner Samantha Rosekrans. The junior was also the only Ivy League player to compete in the NCAA tournament, though she lost 6-3, 7-5 in the first round to the No. 14 player in the nation.

By the time the Crimson made its way out to California for its spring break trip, the squad was 0-9. Harvard dropped three more matches to brutal opponents out West, but generated confidence by keeping matches close.

In the opening weekend of the Ancient Eight season, the Crimson and its 0-12 record exploded to capture two home wins against Cornell and Columbia. In a 5-2 victory over the Big Red, all of the top four singles players won their matches. Against the Lions the next day, Harvard emerged with a 4-3 victory.

“It was a great way to start our April and Ivy League,” captain Stephanie Schnitter said after the weekend sweep. “We started playing well at the end of spring break, and that momentum carried us through.”

By starting league play off with a 2-0 record, the Crimson placed itself in prime position to make a run at the Ivy League title.

Over the next few weekends, however, Harvard dropped five matches, three of which were determined by one point. The squad finished in a tie for fifth in the Ancient Eight.

Rosekrans, in addition to being named All-Ivy Honorable Mention in doubles, was named to the All-Ivy Second Team in singles after leading the Crimson with six league wins and 13 victories overall. Schnitter went 4-3 in the Ancient Eight and ranked second on the team with 12 singles wins. Next season, Harvard will return four starters but loses Schnitter and senior Vilsa Curto, a former Crimson photography editor, who held down the No. 6 singles spot for most of the season.

“The Ivy League is getting tougher and tougher, but if we keep improving and building on this spring, then we should definitely be in a good position,” Green said.

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