Women’s Tennis Falls to Baylor

Harvard (4-5) met stiff competition against Baylor University (4-3) this Sunday at home after a series of away matches. The Crimson fell to the Bears 4-0 in a tough match that challenged both teams to fight aggressively for each point.

Doubles began with junior captain Stephanie Yakoff and junior Kavya Karra taking an early lead over Baylor on the top court. The No. 42 duo controlled the tempo of match play, and with dominant crosscourt presence and net plays, defeated Baylor in a 6-2 finish. This is the pair’s 7th game streak of doubles wins following their toppling of No. 5 doubles duo senior Maria Sholokova and freshman Lucie Urbanova at Wisconsin-Madison.

At the third spot, junior Natalie Block and sophomore Natasha Rajaram found more difficulty against their opponents, with the hosts playing defensively against their more aggressive counterparts. Despite strong first serves from Rajaram, Harvard was bested 6-3 by Baylor sophomore Alian Zack and freshman Luna Ivkovic.

That left the doubles point down to the match on court two, where junior Kate Kim and freshman Claire Shao held a one-game advantage that Baylor was trying to overcome. The Bears’ team of freshman Mu-Jie Tzeng and senior Na Dong turned up the heat against the Crimson, forcing errors from Kim and Shao, which ultimately led to the Crimson’s 7-5 loss.

Harvard started singles play with a point to make up for.

Play was immediately competitive on all courts, but Harvard’s success was varied. Freshman Andra Braicu was dominant over Ivkovic in spot six, winning her first set after only giving up one game.

At the next courts over, Kim and Karra had long rallies at spots No. 5 and 2, respectively, but their finishing points did not go in their favor. Their first sets both went 6-1 to the Bears.

Shao, continuing her streak of singles dominance, won her first set 6-3.

No. 66 Yakoff at the first spot was engaged in a long and competitive match against No. 89 junior Zuzanna Kubacha. While Yakoff was behind by four games, the captain climbed back to earn four of her own. By varying her style of play—mixing in lobs, slices, and aggressive forehands— the Fort Lee, N.J. native succeeded in frustrating her opponent, but ultimately dropped the first set 6-4.

The Crimson strived to even the scores in the second set. Second sets saw closer scores for the Crimson. Sophomore Anna-Raphaelle Serghi started 3-0 after previously losing her first set 6-1. She was not able to keep her advantage, however, with Baylor’s No. 98 Tzeng winning four games of her own.

Kim, challenged by Zack’s shot placement, gained two games before conceding her match 6-2, which put another point on the board for Baylor.

Karra, too, fought a long battle against No. 62 Dong that she was unable to win, bringing the Bear’s lead to 3-0.

Braicu and Shao found their second sets to be more of a challenge, as their opponents, Ivkovic and senior Kennedy Gibbs, narrowed Harvard leads. Braicu’s second set went to Ivkovic at the No. 6 spot.

The match ended after Serghi’s set finished 6-4 in Baylor’s favor, finishing the overall match score at 4-0.

On the day’s match, The Sheila Kelly Palandjian Head Coach Traci Green wrote “A lot of the matches were very tight, so this one is tough, but there’s plenty we can take from competing against a team like Baylor.”

The Crimson will travel to Memphis, Tenn., next weekend for a series of matches against Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Memphis.

“We’re looking forward to getting back out there after the day off and continuing to improve”, writes Green.

—Staff Writer Bianca M. Egan can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff Writer Ava K. McCoy can be reached at [email protected].