Women's Tennis Sweeps Three-Match Weekend at Home

It was a long weekend for the Harvard women’s tennis team, who matched up against Boston University, Marist, and Maryland on Friday and Saturday. After narrowly beating out BU, 4-3, the Crimson recorded convincing wins against Maryland and Marist, 6-1 and 4-0, respectively. Harvard improved to 5-4 on the year after the three-game sweep.

HARVARD 4, MARIST 0

After last week’s tight 4-3 loss to Portland, the Crimson was looking for a response, and the results over the weekend have begun to indicate improvement.

Harvard capped its weekend against Marist (2-4), who entered the contest on a three-game losing streak, continuing a theme with Crimson opponents throughout the weekend.

But all that meant for Harvard was that the teams it played had little to lose.

“The teams we played all came out with no pressure, and it's hard to play teams like that, so it was a good weekend for us,” junior June Lee said.

To round off the successful weekend, the Crimson came out strong in doubles, and went into singles with a 1-0 lead on behalf of Lee and freshman Isabel Jaspers’s clinching doubles win.

Three singles wins later, the match would end, leaving three games unfinished with the score 4-0. Sophomore Nikki Kallenberg, senior Amy He, and junior Danielle Mirda recorded the individual victories.

HARVARD 6, MARYLAND 1

Much like Marist, Maryland (1-4) did not come into the match in the best of form. The team dropped its last two contests, 6-1 and 4-2, against LSU and Tulane, respectively. And after Saturday’s noon matchup in the Murr Center, Maryland’s winless streak would continue.

The Terps got off to a good start, gaining the lead after securing two out of three wins in doubles play. But that would be the only point Maryland could amass, as Harvard proceeded to sweep singles.

Though the scoreline of 6-1 suggests a walk-over, the Crimson competitors were pushed to three sets in four out of the six individual matches.

In registering the win, the Crimson also logged one first.

“It was the first time we lost the doubles point and won, and it was the first time we won every singles match,” Lee said.

HARVARD 4, BU 3

The BU squad (3-3) was already on a two-game losing streak following losses to Ivy Leaguers Yale and Dartmouth when the team arrived to the Murr Center on Friday afternoon. While its last loss at Dartmouth was a 7-0 drubbing, the match against Harvard proved to be a much more even contest.

The Crimson started strong, clinching the all important doubles point. The duos of freshman Erica Oosterhout and Lee and Kallenberg and Jasper would win 6-3 and 6-4, respectively. The pair of sophomore Annika Ringblom and freshman Sabrina Xiong pair would not finish its match because Harvard had already won the point.

Despite going down 1-0, the Terriers came back firing, as its one, two, and three seeds all beat their Harvard counterparts.

BU’s Johanna Hyoty impressed with her win over Lee on court one. After trading the first two sets, Hyoty managed to outlast Lee and record the win, 10-8, in the final set.

But as part of the Crimson squad faltered, seeds four through six were ready to shoulder the responsibility.

On court five, Xiong topped Remi Ramos with a confident 6-1, 6-0 display. Amy He had a similarly simple match, beating BU’s Barbara Rodriguez 6-2 before she retired.

It came down to Oosterhout to force through a Crimson win, and she did just that with a 6-0, 2-6, 6-2 performance to lift her squad.

“The fact that our four, five and six players got the win for us against BU just shows that our team has a lot of depth, and anyone in our lineup could be getting us the win on any day,” Lee said.

The key behind Harvard’s weekend success? In the context of the three-match weekend, it seems self-evident.

“I would say our biggest strength is we all have the ability and fitness to compete in every match and every point,” Ringblom said.

The Crimson now has a streak of its own—three consecutive wins.

—Staff writer Max McEvoy can be reached at max.mcevoy@thecrimson.com.