Morrill Leads Women's Tennis at Harvard Invitational

With a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Brown sophomore Ammu Mandalap on Sunday afternoon, Harvard captain Hannah Morrill finished her Harvard Invitational with an unblemished record. Not only did the senior earn three wins in singles play on the weekend, she also partnered with freshman Monica Lin with the duo winning all three of their doubles matches on the weekend.

The Harvard Invitational, a three-day round robin style tournament, featured players from Harvard, Brown, Illinois, and Boston University. The tournament is the last of the fall season for the Crimson, as Harvard will shift gears into team match play for the spring season.

“Playing in a mock dual format is always fun because you get the feeling of a spring dual tournament,” coach Traci Green said. “We competed very well as a team this weekend, but there are still some individual things we need to work on. Overall, I am very glad that our freshman got a chance to get their feet wet in the spring dual format.”

Harvard started the weekend with strong play across the board on Friday, following three doubles wins over BU in the morning with five wins in singles play. Freshman Spencer Liang and sophomore Amy He earned the first win of the day for the Crimson in doubles play as they knocked off the Boston University pairing of senior Leonie-Charlotte Athanasiadis and sophomore Johanna Hyoty 8-7(4).  Morrill and Lin then cruised to an 8-3 win over the Terriers’ sophomore duo of Lauren Davis and Madison Craft. Sophomore Amanda Lin and freshman Danielle Mirda rounded out the day for the Crimson pairs, defeating rookies Barbara Rodriquez and Iris Lin of Boston University.

On Friday afternoon, Mirda was the only Harvard player to not face an opponent from Illinois, earning a 10-8 victory in a third-set tiebreaker to take the match over Craft from Boston University. Monica Lin, Morrill, Amanda Lin, and Liang all defeated their Fighting Illini opponents with Monica Lin winning a tightly contested match with freshman Jerricka Boone, 6-2, 3-6, (13-11).

Saturday brought doubles matches against conference rival Brown and singles matches against BU for the Crimson. The doubles teams’ success against the Terriers on Friday did not carry over to Saturday morning, as Harvard dropped two out of three matches to the Bears. The lone win on the morning for the Crimson came from the duo of Morrill and Monica Lin.

“I think Hannah played very well and fought really hard,” Liang said. “She came out focused and intense; she showed a lot of leadership in her attitude this weekend.”

Harvard faired better against BU in the singles matches Saturday afternoon as Liang, Monica Lin, and Morrill all notched two-set victories. Amanda Lin, meanwhile, fell 6-2, 6-2 to Rodriquez of BU, whom she had beat just a day earlier in a doubles match.

Sunday morning saw Liang and He bounce back from a loss on Saturday with an 8-3 win over the freshman Illinois doubles pair of Boone and Louisa Kwong. Meanwhile, Morrill and Monica Lin continued their winning ways with an 8-2 defeat of Fighting Illini junior Julia Jamison and sophomore Emily Barretta.

“Coach Green is mixing up the [doubles] teams a lot because we are still getting to know each other both on and off the court,” Liang said. I think Amy and I are a very good team. We had some ups and downs this weekend, but I love playing with her.”

On the singles side, Brown got the better of the Crimson on the day, winning three of the five matches between the two squads. Mirda took down fellow freshman Victoria Traynor of Brown in a close match, 7-6(4), 3-6, (10-8) to go along with Morrill’s win.

Morrill is one of two seniors on the team, and with the Crimson missing multiple players this weekend the captain stepped up.

“Hands down the overall best performance from our team came from our senior captain Hannah Morrill,” coach Green said. “Hannah has been really leading by example all semester and has been coming in for extra work. It was great to see all that hard work pay off for her this weekend.”

—Staff writer M. Ty Aderhold can be reached at michael.aderhold@thecrimson.com.