Harvard Spends Grim Weekend in Virginia

Despite already having played eleven matches, the Harvard women’s tennis team started a new season last weekend.

It began to play outside—an exciting move for Cantabrigians experiencing a particularly cold spring.

Adjusting to the conditions proved too difficult for the Crimson (8-5), as the team dropped matches to No. 18 TCU and No. 28 William and Mary.

“We know we can beat these teams,” senior Eva Wang said. “It’s unfortunate to play two really tough teams while adjusting outside.”

WILLIAM AND MARY 4, HARVARD 3

Sometimes a contest can hinge on one point.

The Crimson needed two for a victory yesterday, but it got none.

Up 7-6 at No. 2 doubles, Eva Wang and Stephanie Schnitter were serving for the match at 30-30, two points away from attaining a doubles point that would have been the difference. Three games later, Harvard had lost 9-7, which proved to be the difference as the Tribe defeated the Crimson, 4-3, in a hard-fought match yesterday.

“We played a really good team,” Harvard coach Gordon Graham said. “It was well played. We just came up a little short.”

Schnitter bounced back from the tough defeat to win at No. 6 singles, extending her streak of nine straight singles wins. Wang also fought hard, losing a close match, 6-2, 6-4. The second set, Wang said, could have gone either way.

“I had a really close second set,” Wang said. “It’s hard when the match comes down to being that close.”

The team remained pleased with its performance against William and Mary as a definite improvement on its work on Saturday against TCU.

“We played much better today in almost every position,” Graham said. “I think we needed that one day for adjustments, but, overall, we did a lot better job.”

TCU 5, HARVARD 2

For the Crimson, overcoming the return of the Horned Frogs’ No. 1 player was challenge enough. Doing it while playing its first match outdoors proved to be too much.

No. 18 TCU ended Harvard’s recent three-match winning streak and avenged its Feb. 3 loss to the team with a 5-2 victory on Saturday.

The match was the first outdoors for the Crimson this season, while the Horned Frogs had begun their outdoor season a few weeks ago. The cold conditions and wind factor seemed to throw the team off, just enough for TCU to gain its revenge with a win.

“There are a lot of different things going on outside,” Wang said. “It was really cold, and [TCU] had been training outside for awhile.”

Minus the external conditions in Williamsburg, Harvard also had to deal with an on-court problem: the return of Horned Frogs No. 1 and national No. 12 Nicole Leimbach, who had been absent for the teams’ last competition.

Behind Leimbach’s convincing 6-1, 6-3 singles victory over Wang and her 8-6 doubles win, the Hornfrogs dismantled the Crimson as the rest of the team followed her lead.

All three TCU doubles team won, including at No. 1 over Harvard’s nationally third-ranked team of co-captains Melissa Anderson and Elsa O’Riain. Anderson and O’Riain lost by retirement as Anderson suffered an injury in the ninth game.

After sweeping to receive the doubles point, TCU clinched victory early—the Hornfrogs won the first three singles matches to go up, 4-0. The team never looked back.

The two most solid performances for the Crimson came from Anderson, who won her singles match, and sophomore Stephanie Schnitter, who delivered for the eighth straight time, improving to 11-1 during the spring season.

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.