Sophomore Cao To Play in Semifinal Today

The Harvard women’s tennis team sent seven players to compete in the ITA East Regional this weekend, but only one player remains in the draw.

Sophomore Holly Cao is currently in the semifinal of the tournament hosted by Yale and will finish play today.

“I think every time Holly’s on the tennis court, she’s a force to be reckoned with,” Crimson coach Traci Green said. “All her opponents are strong, but she’s found a way to come through.”

Cao, the tournament’s two-seed, is 4-0 in singles action during the four-day event.

She won her first three matches easily in straight sets against opponents from Yale, Brown, and Boston College. In the quarterfinals, Cao faced off against Jessie Rhee of Yale and emerged with a 7-6, 6-4 victory. She will play Melissa Saiontz of Princeton tomorrow in the semifinal match.

“I think I’ve been playing well,” Cao said. “This is my first tournament indoors so it’s always a slight adjustment. I’m pleased with the way I’m playing. It’s been straight sets, but they’ve been tough matches.”

Cao also had a solid showing in doubles, advancing the quarterfinals with her partner, freshman Kristin Norton. The pair went 3-1 on the weekend, winning its first three matches 8-3, 8-5, and 9-7. In its next match, the fifth-seeded tandem matched up against the three-seed, Molly Scott and Mary Beth Winingham from Dartmouth. The Big Green team downed Cao and Norton, 9-7.

In other doubles action, junior captain Samantha Rosekrans paired up with freshman Hideko Tachibana.

The two posted 8-3 and 8-5 wins, but lost to the top-seeded team of Hilary Bartlett and Taylor Marable from Princeton.

“I think we had a really good showing,” Green said. “[Our doubles play] improved tremendously in the last month and a half.”

Cao, Norton, Tachibana, and freshman Sophie Chang were all seeded in this weekend’s singles tournament.

In a tough first-round match, Chang squeaked out a three-set victory to set up a face off against top-seed Molly Scott of Dartmouth in the next round. In that match, Chang steamrolled Scott, winning 6-1, 6-4. But the freshman met her demise in the next round when she fell to the nine-seed, Casey Herzberg of Brown, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

“Sophie had a great weekend,” Green said. “[She] kept her composure which was very critical. She kept her focus and at the right moments she went for some big shots and came through.”

Norton also had a strong weekend as the 13th-seed. She won her first match with conviction, and then faced two three-set battles. She edged an opponent from Dartmouth 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, and then took down the six-seed, Vicky Brook of Yale, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. In the quarterfinals, a tired Norton could not put up a big enough challenge, and she dropped the match 6-3, 6-1.

“Both [Chang and Norton] have been playing extremely well all week,” Cao said. “[Norton] had a couple three setters in the singles and that sort of took a toll on her. They stepped up to the occasion.”

Unseeded Harvard players, freshman Alexandra Lehman and Rosekrans, fell in the first and second round, respectively.

Tachibana, who has been undefeated in singles this preseason and has won multiple tournaments, finally met her match this weekend. The three-seed cruised past her first two opponents, but fell emphatically to Magdalena Ploch of UMass, 6-2, 6-2.

“It was just bound to happen,” Green said on Tachibana’s first loss. “She’s had an excellent fall so far. She had a really good doubles weekend as well.”

The indoor regional tournament is one of the more important competitions of the fall season. According to Green, the success of her young players was impressive.

“I thought the overall results were very solid,” Green said. “Our team being so young, we really showed a lot of promise this weekend.”

Cao takes the court today at 10:30 a.m. for her semifinal match, and then will play in the finals this afternoon pending the result of her first match.

“I’m going into the match focusing on my game and trying to do my best,” Cao said. “I’m hoping to win tomorrow, obviously. A more important thing though is to improve with each match. That’s the main goal.”

—Staff writer Jake I. Fisher can be reached at jifisher@fas.harvard.edu.