Season Preview: Women's Tennis Looks to Repeat as Ivy League Champions This Spring

Photo courtesy of DSPics.com

With the spring season just around the corner, the Harvard women’s tennis team looks to build upon the success of the fall. Throughout the fall tournaments, Harvard accumulated 85 individual victories and 36 doubles wins.

Four members of the team came out of the fall season with double-digits in the win column: freshman Kristin Norton paced the team with 15 wins, classmate Hideko Tachibana had 12 and sophomore Holly Cao and rookie Sophie Chang each boasted 11 wins. Freshman Alexandra Lehman and sophomore Louise Laciny were close behind with nine and eight victories, respectively.

“We had a busy fall schedule which allowed everyone to get a lot of matches,” said head coach Traci Green. “Everyone got experience playing top level competition.”

Harvard competed in six tournaments in the fall, coming away with a finalist or champion in five of those events. Sophomore Holly Cao won the Northeast Region Intercollegiate Tennis Association Championship in New Haven, Conn., and advanced to the National Indoor tournament.

The experience gained from the fall will help the young Crimson team in the spring. With no seniors on the roster this year, the sophomores and juniors will act as upperclassmen and will all play major roles in the spring season.

“Our captain, Samantha Rosekrans, will lead a solid group of competitors,” said Green. “Our ‘upperclassmen’ have the experience from the 2009 Ivy League title under their belt.”

The four freshmen on the team will look to carry their success from the fall season into the spring. The rookies tallied a 47-13 record through the six tournaments.

In the ITA National rankings that were released on Jan. 5, Harvard has three players in the top 100. Holly Cao is ranked 79th, followed by Tachibana 86th and Sophie Change stands 95th.

Among players in the Northeast region, there are four Crimson players ranked in the top 15. Cao stands at No. 1, while Norton is sixth, Tachibana appears seventh and Chang is 12th. The doubles pair of Cao and Norton is ranked sixth in the region.

Harvard opens up the dual season Jan. 23, hosting Boston University. Ivy League play begins April 2 as the Crimson hosts Columbia.