Trip to Snowy Texas Brings Tennis Split

The Harvard women’s tennis team traveled to Waco, Texas this weekend to compete in the ITA Kickoff Tournament. Facing frigid temperatures and two non-conference opponents, the Crimson held its own, coming away with a 4-1 win over the Nevada Wolf Pack yesterday, but falling, 4-0, to the No. 5 Baylor Bears on Saturday.

In both matches, Harvard freshmen—who made up four of the six starting singles positions—paced the squad with high energy levels.

“[The freshmen] pretty much have been our on-court leaders,” Harvard coach Traci Green said. “They’ve been a spark for the others.”

HARVARD 4, NEVADA 1

Weather was a major factor in yesterday’s match against the Wolf Pack.

“It was actually snowing this morning against Nevada,” junior captain Samantha Rosekrans said. “Not ideal tennis weather.”

Despite the cold and windy conditions, Harvard was able to capture four singles matches and secure a 4-1 victory.

But the Crimson opened the match by losing the doubles point. According to Green, Harvard’s lower level of play in doubles was due to inconsistency.

At No. 3, freshman Sophie Chang and sophomore Samantha Gridley gave the Crimson a boost with an 8-5 win. But Nevada stole the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2. The top Harvard pair of sophomore Holly Cao and Rosekrans fell, 8-6, and the tandem of freshmen Hideko Tachibana and Kristin Norton lost, 8-4.

“I thought our doubles started very flat today,” Green said. “It wasn’t very good. The singles was much better, people were much more consistent.”

In singles, Tachibana took down Florence De Vrye, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 2. In the No. 3 slot, Norton won, 6-3, 6-4, and at No. 4, Rosekrans earned a 7-5, 6-1 victory. For the fourth singles win, Chang took down Sophie Stevens, 6-3, 6-4, in the No. 5 spot.

BAYLOR 4, HARVARD 0

The Crimson had its hands full with the Bears, one of the nation’s top teams. Baylor captured the doubles point and then won the first three singles matches to clinch the overall victory, 4-0.

“We obviously went in as the underdog,” Rosekrans said. “We knew we had no pressure, nothing to lose.”

Although the score would indicate otherwise, Harvard put forth a strong effort in the doubles portion of the match. Tachibana and Norton brought energy that allowed the pair to challenge its opponents, according to Green.

“We were trying to just have fun with it,” Rosekrans said. “In the doubles we were pretty evenly matched. In singles they overpowered us.”

In the No. 1 doubles position, Cao and Rosekrans managed to stay with No. 13 Lenka Broosova and Csilla Borsany but ultimately fell, 8-4. Gridley and Chang dropped their match by the same score.

At the No. 3 singles slot, Baylor’s Nina Secerbegovic, ranked No. 24 in the nation, defeated Norton, 6-0, 7-5. In the No. 5 position, Rosekrans was similarly blanked in the first set, and ultimately fell 6-0, 6-2 to Taylor Ormond.

At No. 6 Carla Lundlar beat freshman Alexandra Lehman, 6-2, 6-3.

Because Baylor clinched the overall win with four match victories, Cao, Tachibana, and Chang did not finish their matches.

“Playing Baylor was a great experience, because they’re such a high level team with a bunch of accolades,” Green said. “I know it’s going to help us.”

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