Women's Tennis Splits with Best, Worst Ivy Squads

The women’s tennis team traveled to Princeton (18-5, 5-0 Ivy) and Penn (4-13, 0-5) this weekend riding a four-match win streak and looking to give itself the inside track to an Ivy League title. But the squad would face its biggest challenge this season against the league favorite Tigers, who shared the Ivy crown with Harvard last season.

Unfortunately for the Crimson (11-7, 3-1), No. 28 Princeton fended off No. 53 Harvard, 5-2, on Friday, putting the Tigers in the driver’s seat for a league title with only two matches against Ancient Eight bottom dwellers Cornell (11-9, 1-3) and Columbia (9-12, 0-5) to play. On Saturday, the Crimson began a new win streak in defeating the Quakers, 7-0.

“Friday we had a tough match against Princeton, and then we bounced back against Penn,” Harvard coach Traci Green said. “Now we’re reloading for Brown on Friday.”

HARVARD 7, PENN 0

Saturday brought the Crimson nothing but wins. In fact, the Crimson only lost one set the entire afternoon.

“Our goal was to beat them as badly as possible,” junior captain Samantha Rosekrans said.

“Overall, we came to play,” Green added. “We executed the whole way through, which was great to see.”

The squad opened the afternoon with a sweep in doubles play. Sophomore Holly Cao and Rosekrans shut out their opponents, 8-0, at No. 1. Meanwhile, freshmen Hideko Tachibana and Kristin Norton won, 8-2, at No. 2, and sophomores Caroline Davis and Samantha Gridley took the No. 3 match, 8-3.

In singles play, No. 56 Cao improved to 13-3 on the No. 1 court with her 6-1, 6-2 victory over Alexa Ely.

On the next court, No. 121 Tachibana won her first set, 6-2, but found herself tied 5-5 with Emily Wolf in the second before pulling out the next two games to extend her win streak to five matches.

Norton made quick work of Jacqueline Wong, 6-2, 6-1, while Rosekrans defeated Jules Rodin, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 4 for her sixth-consecutive singles victory.

Freshman Alexandra Lehman and Gridley recorded victories at No. 5 and No. 6, respectively.

“Our squad played like a unit against Penn, had a target in mind, and went for it,” Green said.

PRINCETON 5, HARVARD 2

Facing its fellow defending Ivy champion for the second time this season, Harvard hoped it could repeat its 4-2 victory over the Tigers in February at the ECAC Women’s Indoor Tennis Championship Tournament. Playing in Princeton, N.J., this time, the Crimson couldn’t pull off the repeat and dropped its first league match this season, while the Tigers remained undefeated in Ivy play.

“I think we did a better job of executing in February,” Green said. “Princeton took it up a notch [this time], and at the key moments, they executed better. We believe and we know the season is not over until it’s over. We’re going to do all we can to come in second or tie them.”

“We knew they were undefeated and came off a couple big wins,” Rosekrans said. “They just outplayed us. We were really devastated. It takes us out of the running to win the Ivy League title.”

The match opened with Harvard falling in all three doubles matches, handing the Tigers their first point of the afternoon.

Princeton earned its second on the No. 5 court, where junior Agnes Sibilski lost for the first time this season, 6-1, 6-2.

The Tigers moved to the brink of victory when Lehman dropped a 6-3, 6-1 decision at No. 6.

Despite winning in straight sets in February, Cao fell to No. 72 Hilary Barlett this time, 6-1, 6-3, clinching the match for Princeton.

Rosekrans gave the Crimson its first point of the afternoon with her 10th win of the season. After dropping the tightly contested first set, 7-5, she evened the match by taking the second, 6-2. In the super tiebreak, she outplayed her opponent to earn a 10-2 win.

“I was getting too reactive in the first set, but pulled it together in the second set and played more calmly,” Rosekrans said.

Norton lost the closest match of the afternoon. Despite losing the first set, 6-4, she came back to win the second, 7-5. In the super tiebreak, Norton lost by the slimmest of margins, 11-9.

The afternoon ended with Tachibana winning her 11th match of the season, taking the No. 2 court in three sets. After losing the first set, 6-3, Tachibana won the second set in a suspenseful tiebreak, 7-6 (9-7). But the super tiebreak went in Tachibana’s favor, 10-0, to make the final score 5-2.

“We second-guessed ourselves a little bit too much.” Green said. “Princeton was the better team.”

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