COMEBACK TEAM OF THE YEAR: Crimson Follows Cellar-Dweller Season with Ivy Title

After amassing a 2-17 record in 2008, the women’s tennis team had nowhere to go but up. And this season, the Crimson (13-8, 6-1 Ivy) surely flew high, soaring to a share of the Ivy League Championship.

Harvard struggled throughout the preseason last year, going 0-12 before the start of the Ancient Eight fixture. Other than a weekend sweep of Columbia and Cornell, the Crimson was unable to find its rhythm against league foes.

Led by then-first-year coach Traci Green, the team fell victim to injuries, inconsistency in doubles, and struggles at the bottom of the singles lineup.

Just one season later, Harvard climbed to the top of the Ivy League, sharing the title with Princeton. The team also secured the No. 66 spot in the ITA national rankings.

“Definitely a bunch of things [caused the comeback],” captain Laura Peterzan said. “Good incoming freshmen, good coaching, everyone stepping up and pulling their own weight...everything was better.”

One reason the Crimson bolted to the top of the standings was Harvard’s development of a devastating doubles lineup. The Crimson picked up the doubles point of every match in Ivy League play and finished the season with an 18-3 league mark in doubles matches.

“Coach Green has really put an emphasis on doubles for the team match,” senior Beier Ko said. “It’s only worth one point, but that point can be a deciding factor.”

Ko and sophomore Agnes Sibilski went a perfect 6-0 at No. 1 and made the All-Ivy First Team. The duo took down two nationally-ranked pairs—No. 36 Hillary Bartlett and Taylor Marable from Princeton and No. 67 Bianca Aboubakare and Cassandra Herzberg from Brown. At No. 2, sophomore Samantha Rosekrans and freshman Holly Cao went 4-3 and earned All-Ivy honorable mention. In the No. 3 position, freshman Camille Jania and Peterzan were flawless, going 7-0.

Another theme this season was the contribution of the freshman class. The freshmen occupied the No. 5 and No. 6 singles positions and provided the team with reliable depth.

“I feel like we sort of just threw [the freshmen] to the wolves at the beginning, and it really paid off,” Green said. “It was all sort of clicking at the end.”

Cao, who spent the majority of her time at No. 5 singles, went 5-2 in league play. Jania was 2-1 at No. 6 singles in addition to going undefeated in doubles. Harvard benefited greatly from the confidence that wins could come from anywhere in the lineup.

“All the freshman coming in have been a breath of fresh air,” Rosekrans said on April 5. “That solidarity has really brought us closer together, and we’ve really improved a lot because of it.”

The veterans on the team—Ko, Rosekrans, Sibilski, and Peterzan—picked up their play and became leaders for the freshmen, who made up five of the 10 players on the squad.

“Our captain, Laura Peterzan, put a lot of work into keeping the team together,” Green said. “We had strong leadership on the court and teamwork. Our captain worked overtime keeping a very young squad on task.”

The turnaround from 2008 to 2009 also featured a turnaround within the 2009 season.

At the beginning of this year, the Crimson dropped some tight preseason matches, including one to Dartmouth, a team that finished in the middle of the Ivy League pack. Injuries in the winter also did not bode well for the squad. Ko missed the first two Ivy League matches in singles, and Cao only started playing in dual matches over spring break.

But after spring break, Harvard came together and started playing its best tennis of the year. By the end of the Ivy League season, the Crimson had reached its peak and completed the rejuvenation.

“We’re a totally different team than we were in February,” Green said on April 21, before facing the Big Green. “I feel like our squad is much more confident, more competent, and we are prepared to beat anybody that comes in our path.”

The 6-1 win over Dartmouth in the final match of the season solidified Harvard’s comeback season, as the team claimed the Ivy title for the first time since 2006.

“I’m extremely proud of all of our players,” Green said. “This year we really stuck together and found a way.”

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