Tennis Takes Home Ivy Awards

When it comes to women’s tennis, the latest trend, besides whatever outfits a certain Williams sister is wearing, is simple: the best are getting better—hardware, at least, at Harvard.

Harvard women’s tennis earned its share of Ivy League awards across the spectrum today.

Last year, junior Holly Cao was selected to the All-Ivy League singles first-team after going 15-4 on the season in dual matches. This year? Cao coasted to a cool 15-1 record, going 6-1 in the Ancient Eight, and only lost to recently crowned Ivy League Player and Rookie of the Year Connie Hsu of Penn.

After the third season of her Crimson career, Cao boasts a 61-16 record in singles play, 37-7 in dual matches, and now, a unanimous selection to the All-Ivy League team under her belt.

Other selections to the first-team include sophomores Kristin Norton and Hideko Tachibana, who amassed a 10-4 record as a doubles pair. Another unanimous first team All-Ivy League pair, Hsu and Alexa Ely, from Penn, handed the Harvard duo its only in-conference loss of the season.

Tachibana was also honored for her 11-6 overall record and 5-2 conference mark with a spot on the Second Team All-Ivy squad for singles. Interestingly enough, both of her losses also came against second-team selections Rachael Saiontz of Princeton and Elizabeth Epstein of Yale.

Coincidence? We think not.