Women's Tennis To Host Once Again

For the third straight year, the Harvard women’s tennis team swept through the Ivy League schedule without a single blemish, and for the third straight year, its impressive play was recognized by the NCAA tournament selection committee.

Yesterday, the committee announced the 64-team field for the 2005 NCAA championship, naming Harvard one of 16 regional venues that will host the first two rounds of play. The No. 19 Crimson (17-6, 7-0 Ivy), which received the same honor the past two seasons, will begin its quest for the national title against Maryland (11-11) at the Beren Tennis Center on May 13.

“We’re really excited to be hosting. It will be great to play on our home courts, and to have our fans,” said freshman Celia Durkin, who plays number one singles and doubles for the Crimson. “I feel like we can definitely go to [the Sweet 16] and really make a dent in the draw.”

Harvard will be making its 12th NCAA tournament appearance, and is officially ranked as a 17-32 seed. Only the top 16 teams are seeded by the committee, with the remainder of the field being grouped into the 17-32, 33-48 and 49-64 seed categories to determine regional match-ups. The Crimson is ranked number two in its region behind the 16 seed Tennessee (14-8), which plays Boston University (11-9), ranked number four as a 49-64 seed, in the first round. Maryland is ranked third in the regional as a 33-48 seed.

“We’ve learned that every team, no matter what their record is, poses a challenge,” Durkin said. “Any team can have a good day, and it only takes one bad day to get knocked out of the tournament.”

Harvard knows that all too well, as last year, the Crimson also held the number two ranking in its regional, but was upset at home by Ohio State in the first round. Harvard will try to prove last year’s lapse of confidence was only a fluke by dispatching the lower-seeded Maryland.

“We definitely have talked about [the Ohio State loss],” Durkin said. “It’s something to motivate us, something that we can learn from and hopefully can make us better.”

If the Crimson is able to get by Maryland, it will face off against the winner of the Tennessee-B.U. match the following day—May 14. Looking ahead, the victor in that contest will advance to the Sweet 16. The last four rounds, including the championship match, will be held this year at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga., from May 19-22.

“Obviously, you’ve got to have the biggest goal...to win NCAA’s,” said sophomore Elsa O’Riain, who plays second singles. “It’s not that unrealistic considering some of the wins we’ve had this year. We’re not going in looking to just get to the Sweet 16, we’re going in to win.”

For the third year in a row Harvard has been placed in the same bracket as perennial juggernaut Stanford. This year, the reigning champion has been tabbed as the number one seed overall. In 2003, the Crimson advanced to the Sweet 16 before falling to the Cardinal, which went on to play in the championship match. Stanford has knocked out Harvard three out of the 11 times the Crimson has played for the title.

“It would be nice not to have to play them in the [initial draw],” O’Riain said. “We kind of knew we were going to get them—Murphy’s Law.”

The Crimson’s campaign for its first NCAA championship would be significantly bolstered by the healthy return of its two co-captains, Courtney Bergman and Susanna Lingman. Both seniors are former first team All-Ivy selections in both singles and doubles, but the duo has been kept off the courts with nagging injuries for much of 2005.

“They’re on the road to recovery,” Durkin said. “They should be ready to go by NCAA’s, so Courtney will play [first singles] and Susanna will play two.”

—Staff writer Caleb W. Peiffer can be reached at cpeiffer@fas.harvard.edu.