W. Tennis Sweeps Singles, Tops Boston College

With a sweep of its singles matches against Boston College on Saturday, the Harvard women’s tennis team returned to the winning column with a 6-1 victory. The Crimson improved its spring record to 3-4 and overall mark to 7-4.

The Crimson won despite playing with a shorthanded squad, as junior Sanja Bajin and freshman Ashley Hyotte were both out of action.

The Harvard women shut down the Eagles after dropping the doubles point. After the two teams split the opening doubles matches, the Crimson’s No. 1 combo of freshmen Courtney Bergman and Susanna Lingman fell to Nida Waseem and Ruta Veitas in the deciding match.

The Harvard duo led early in the competition 5-4, but then Veitas became unstoppable. With the Crimson freshmen directing shots at her feet, Veitas was able to come up with huge volleys, winning four of the last five points.

Harvard’s No. 3 team had started the Crimson on the right foot, as the doubles pair of freshman Alexis Martire and junior Lara Naqushbandi debuted with an 8-6 victory.

But the No. 2 spot was a different story. Seniors Fleur Broughton and Sarah McGinty, bumped up from the third team because of Harvard’s injuries, dropped their match 8-3.

“We made sure to understand that doubles was only one point,” Bergman said. “We refocused for singles.”

Down a point entering the singles matches for the third straight competition, Harvard displayed enormous determination, demolishing their BC opponents in straight sets in all six matches.

“I was proud of the way our players responded to this pressure situation,” Harvard Coach Gordon Graham said. “It was a dicey situation. But the players responded like champs and really took it to their opponents in convincing, aggressive style.”

Powered by the freshmen trio of Bergman, Lingman and Martire—the first three Harvard seeds, respectively—the Crimson rebounded from its doubles disappointment. In their six sets, the freshmen allowed just eight games to BC.

“We all played really well this weekend,” Bergman said. “Everyone won handily.”

Utilizing the fast BC courts to her advantage, Lingman employed an aggressive approach to complement her baseline strategy against Morgan Landes. Lingman won 6-1, 6-1 to tie the overall match score at 1.

Martire and Bergman followed suit, putting the Crimson up 3-1, one point away from victory.

Stepping up to finish off the comeback were three Harvard seniors.

Both co-captain Broughton and Jennie Timoney opened their matches with easy 6-2 first-set wins. Broughton displayed clinical efficiency in the second set, dismantling her oppening 6-1 to clinch the winning point for the Crimson.

Timoney, who was playing her first team match in over a month, struggled in the second set, falling behind 5-2. But she rebounded from that deficit to win the last five games and emerge victorious at 7-5.

At No. 4 singles, Naqushbandi battled her Eagle opponent, Amy Molden, in the longest match of the day. Her match started at the same time as the top three seeds but persisted past the ends of those matches and the wins by Broughton and Timoney at Nos. 5 and 6.

Naqushbandi lost her initial 5-2 lead and had to resort to a tiebreaker to win the first set.

Then, after falling behind 5-4 in the seond set, Naqushbandi managed to pull out the second set in another tiebreak, winning 7-6, 7-6 and completing the singles sweep.

W. TENNIS 6, BC 1

Doubles: 1. Waseem-Veitas (BC) d. Bergman-Lingman 8-6 2. Ashley-Hellberg (BC) d. Broughton-McGinty 8-3 3. Martire-Naqushbandi (H) d. Landes-Fernando 8-6 Singles: 1. Courtney Bergman (H) d. Allison Ashley 6-1, 6-1 2. Susanna Lingman (H) d. Morgan Landes 6-1, 6-1 3. Alexis Martire (H) d. Nida Waseem 6-2, 6-2 4. Lara Naqushbandi (H) d. Amy Molden 7-6, 7-6 5. Fleur Broughton (H) d. Anisha Fernando 6-2, 6-1 6. Jennie Timoney (H) d. Ruta Veitas 6-2, 7-5