CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard women's tennis returned to the court for the first time in the 2024 season to battle crosstown foe, Boston College.  Looking strong from the beginning, the Crimson ultimately cruised to a 6-1 victory over the Eagles. 

How it Happened

The Crimson began the day by securing the doubles point to go up 1-0 in the match.  Stephanie Yakoff and Holly Fischer teamed up for just the second time in 2023-24 to take down their Boston College counterpart at the No. 2 position, 6-2.  Natalie Block and Sany Gawande closed out doubles play by posting a near identical result of 6-3 over Nada Dimovska and Natalie Eordekian (Boston College). 
 
Gawande's strong play continued quickly into singles play as she pushed the Crimson lead to 2-0 by downing Stephanie Sanchez (Boston College), 6-4, 6-3, at the No. 4 position.  First-year Kate Kim followed closely behind to lift Harvard a victory away from clinching the match.  In her first collegiate dual match, Kim posted a duo of 6-3 decisions to down Muskan Mahajan (Boston College) at the No. 5 spot.
 
Holly Fischer, who was touted No. 103 in the most recent ITA Women's Division I singles rankings, ultimately clinched the match for the Crimson at the No. 1 position.  Fischer bested Seren Aguiar (Boston College) in a tight match, 7-5, 6-4. 
 
First-year Stephanie Yakoff captured the final win of the day for the Crimson in the first dual competition of her career.  Battling back after dropping the first set in tiebreakers, Yakoff tied the match up following a 6-3 second set.  In a back-and-forth third set tiebreaker, the Crimson first-year prevailed over Tola Glowacka (Boston College), 12-10. 

Harvard Highlights

• Kate Kim and Stephanie Yakoff both picked up their first career collegiate dual match wins this afternoon.  Kim and Yakoff moved to 11-3 and 9-2, respectively, in the 2023-24 season. 
• While only having now teamed up a combined five times, the duos of Stephanie Yakoff and Holly Fischer and Natalie Block and Sany Gawande each remain undefeated on the year with their wins tonight. 
• Holly Fischer remains the only undefeated Crimson player as she moved to 6-0 after defeating Seren Aguiar (Boston College). 
• With the win, the Crimson extended its advantage in the all-time series over the Eagles to 35-15. 

Results

Harvard – 6, Boston College – 1
Doubles

1. Iveta Daujotaite/Angel You vs. Aguiar/Glowacka (BC), 5-3 DNF
2. Stephanie Yakoff/Holly Fischer def. Seren Agar/Stephanie Sanchez (BC), 6-2
3. Natalie Block/Sany Gawande def. Nada Dimovska/Natalie Eordekian (BC), 6-3

 
Singles

1. No. 103 Holly Fischer def. Seren Aguiar (BC), 7-5, 6-4
2. Stephanie Yakoff def. Tola Glowacka (BC), 6-7, 6-3, 12-10
3. Maxi Duncan def. Natalie Eordekian (BC), 4-6, 7-6, 2-2 (7-4)
4. Sany Gawande def. Stephanie Sanchez (BC), 6-4, 6-3
5. Kate Kim def. Muskan Mahajan (BC), 6-3, 6-3
6. Seren Agar (BC) def. Kavya Karra, 4-6, 7-6, 10-8

Order of finish: 4, 5, 1, 6, 3, 2

Next Up

The Crimson will next travel to Texas this weekend for a pair of matches against No. 2 Texas A&M and Rice on Saturday, January 20 and Sunday, January 21, respectively.