Harvard Hopes to Heat Up Out West

With a 1-9 record, the Harvard women’s tennis team has had a hard time finding the form that carried it through four consecutive Ivy League seasons.

The team’s spring break trip to California—featuring homecomings for both the team’s coach and captain—will provide a final opportunity to get on track before the games really begin to count.

With three matches against unranked teams, every West Coast bout is eminently winnable for the Crimson. None of the teams share any common opponents with the Harvard to provide a clue as to how the teams will match up.

All three teams, however, have been playing outdoors all season, while the Crimson have only played several matches outside.

“All three teams are beatable teams, teams we can beat, and teams that can beat us,” head coach Gordon Graham said. “We’ve played such a tough schedule. We’ve been up to our eyeballs against some of these people.”

In 2004, the Crimson’s weakest season among the last five in terms of overall record, the No. 22 Crimson headed into spring break with a 6-5 non-league record. The team struggled to a 1-3 record on the West Coast, sweeping unranked San Francisco before losing to Fresno State, Arizona State, and Pepperdine. After returning to Cambridge with a losing record and a lower ranking, Harvard promptly went 7-0 in the Ivy League to capture the championship.

Similarly, it is difficult to predict how the Crimson will do in California this year—and what results from the far side of the country might mean for the team’s Ivy League hopes.

Harvard’s first match, against Pacific (5-6) on Tuesday, holds special significance for Gordon--he spent twelve years coaching the Tigers before moving to Harvard in 1992. Since his departure, Pacific has done much of its recruiting internationally. Nevertheless, the squad features no ranked singles or doubles players.

“We always had good success against Harvard while I was there,” Graham joked. “We’ll see what happens.”

The Crimson take on UC Davis (9-7) Friday in a match placed on the schedule to fill a cancellation by Northwestern. As with the match against Pacific, the Crimson face no ranked individuals nor doubles duos.

The third match, against Sacramento State on Saturday, will be a homecoming of sorts for senior Mukundan, who hails from nearby Folsom, Calif. Mukundan grew up playing at the local club, and knows both players and coaches on the Hornets.

“There should be quite a turnout,” Graham said. “She’s had a great career here and it will be great for her to get a chance to go back home and for people to see her play.”

The team returns from Calif. on April 1 and opens the Ivy season April 6 against Cornell in Ithaca.

—Staff writer Tyler D. Sipprelle can be reached at sipprell@fas.harvard.edu.