Tennis Competes At South Florida

Yesterday afternoon, the Crimson women’s tennis team sweltered beneath the warm Tampa sun in a losing effort against No. 20 South Florida (7-4). With the 5-2 defeat, No. 60 Harvard (6-5) ended its only trip to Florida this season with an even record after winning against Central Florida on Saturday.

“Unfortunately today didn’t go our way,” Harvard coach Traci Green said. “It was a great experience for us to play a top-ranked team, and we believe we can play with anybody.”

The Bulls grabbed the first point of the afternoon in a sweep of the three doubles matches.

Junior captain Samantha Rosekrans and sophomore Holly Cao were blanked 8-0 by the No. 15 duo in the country, Melissa Koning and Irene Rehberger, while the other two courts kept the doubles point briefly in limbo.

At No. 3 doubles, sophomore Caroline Davis and freshman Alexandra Lehman traded games with their opponents, eventually knotting the score at 6-6 before dropping the next two games to concede the doubles point to South Florida.

“It was a really tight doubles match, Green said. “I’m really proud of them.”

Beside them, freshmen Hideko Tachibana and Kristin Norton were up 6-3 but they unexpectedly gave up their lead. Although they were able to tie the score at 7-7, the final two games went in the Bulls’ favor to give them a doubles sweep and keep the momentum on their side.

“No. 2 and No. 3 were really close,” Rosekrans said. “They could have gone either way.”

In the singles matches, freshman Sophie Chang lost, 6-0, 6-4, to put the Crimson at a 2-0 deficit, but No. 115 Tachibana quickly pulled her team back within one point with a victory of her own, 6-4, 6-1. Tachibana is now 7-3 at No. 2 this season.

“Hideko’s opponent was throwing a lot of things at her,” Green said. “She responded well and pushed her game to another level.”

Norton dropped her first set 6-1, but quickly took the lead in the second, 3-0. Unfortunately for Harvard, Norton then suffered a light ankle sprain, which hindered her ability to close out the set. Despite coming within a game of victory at 5-4, she lost the next three games to lose the set, 7-5, effectively giving South Florida its third point.

“[The ankle sprain] threw her off her game and took her out of contention,” Green said.

Norton will visit the trainer when she returns to Cambridge to assess her condition to play in the squad’s next match.

A 6-4, 6-0 loss by sophomore Samantha Gridley gave the Bulls their clinching point, and brought them to 5-0 record on their home court.

Despite her team’s loss, No. 84 Cao had something to prove in the No. 1 court against No. 35 Irene Rehberger. In a hard fought match, Cao took the first set 6-3, but lost the second 6-2. In the deciding super tie-break, Cao battled to a 10-5 win to earn the Crimson’s second point of the afternoon.

“I kept calm and think I played a good match overall,” Cao said. “I need to keep being aggressive even if I’m making errors.”

The win against her higher ranked opponent moved Cao to 8-1 and will likely help improve her national ranking.

“Holly believes she can beat anybody in the country, and her teammates believe that as well,” Green said. “Holly was feeling under the weather but pulled out the victory for the team.”

To close the contest, Rosekrans battled back from an opening set 6-3 loss to take the second set 6-4. But in her super tie-break, feeling tired on the burning tennis court, she succumbed to a 10-6 loss.

“I feel like I got heat stroke or something,” Rosekrans said. “I was suffering from extremely low energy.”

Despite yesterday’s loss, the team is looking forward to playing outdoors again next week, when it continues its seven-match stretch away from the Murr Center and travels to California, before returning home for the start of the Ivy League season in April.

“I feel like the outdoor conditions actually suit our team,” Green said. “We have a lot of players who grew up playing outdoors.”

—Staff writer Eric L. Michel can be reached at emichel@fas.harvard.edu.