This past weekend, Harvard (4-4) entered the ECAC Championships and took on Brown University (5-2), Princeton (6-1), and Dartmouth (4-3). The Crimson fell to the Bears and the Tigers, but pulled through with a win over the Big Green.
Harvard’s first match of the weekend took place against eighth-seeded Brown, which upset the Crimson, the tournament favorite, in a close match.
Harvard began with an advantage after taking the Bears on two out of three doubles courts, with the No. 42 team of junior captain Stephanie Yakoff and junior Kavya Karra defeating their opponents 6-3 on court one, and junior Natalie Block and sophomore Natasha Rajaram taking down theirs 6-4 on the third court.
Brown pulled out its own win against Harvard duo junior Kate Kim and freshman Claire Shao 6-3, but the doubles point was nonetheless earned by the Crimson.
It was in singles that the match began to go the Bears’ way.
Brown seemed to respond to its initial disadvantage by gaining early leads. The Bears won first sets on all courts besides Yakoff in the first spot and Shao at the third, which necessitated Harvard amping up its play.
Despite this, Brown’s successful streak continued, with matches on courts four and six resulting in two points on the board for the Bears. On court four, sophomore Ana-Raphaelle Serghi fell to her opponent 6-0, 6-2, and freshman Andra Braicu retired midway through her second set on the sixth court.
Yakoff, who finished with straight 6-1, 6-1 sets, and Shao, who won 6-4, 7-5, kept the Crimson in the match with two points of their own.
Harvard, leading Brown 3-2 with just Karra and Kim’s matches still active, was unable to secure the overall victory.
Kim, who fought long sets against her opponent, ended her match with 6-4, 7-5 losses, tying the match at three.
Karra was engaged in an aggressive three-set fight against Brown’s junior Hannah Shen. After dropping the first set, Karra snagged a tiebreak win in the second to force a third. Unfortunately for the Crimson, Shen clinched the contest in the third. This put Brown ahead by one crucial point, ending with an upset win for the Bears.
In the Saturday morning consolation match, Harvard faced off against Princeton, which had fallen to Yale 4-1 the day prior.
The match opened in favor of the Tigers.
At doubles spots two and three, Princeton pulled out victories, nabbing the first point of the match. Doubles teams of Rajaram and Block, as well as Kim and Shao, were unable to pull ahead of their Ivy League rivals, resulting in 6-4, 6-1 sets.
Princeton clinched the doubles point just as Yakoff and Karra began to edge their opponents out at 5-4 on the first court.
In singles play, the Tigers were able to win the first sets on almost every court. Only Shao was able to best her opponent in the opening frame, beating junior Madeleine Jessup 6-3.
On courts three and six, Kim and Rajaram struggled against Tigers senior Eva Elbaz and sophomore Pearlie Zhang, respectively. Their matches ended in Princeton’s favor, contributing two additional points to make the overall score 3-0 in favor of the home team.
Princeton’s lead was significant, but it was Shao that kept Harvard in the game once again, taking her second set 6-2 and scratching the Crimson’s first point onto the scoreboard.
Despite this, Harvard was unable to make up the difference, and it was with the end of Karra’s match that the Tigers secured their fourth point.
Harvard’s doubles teams of Yakoff and Karra, Shao and Kim, and Block and Rajaram all started with leads over their respective Dartmouth opponents. First to finish was the first duo, as the nationally-ranked juniors who dominated their competitors with a 6-2 win.
Despite the win on the first court, the Crimson’s other pairs fell behind the Big Green and were unable to make up the deficit, resulting in the first point going to Dartmouth.
Singles play saw Crimson redemption, however, with Yakoff and Karra at the first and second spots, each establishing a set advantage. Yakoff fought to a win in a tiebreak, besting her opponent 7-6.
On the third court, Shao began her singles match with a 6-2 loss, only to flip the score on her opponent in the next set.
As Yakoff entered her second set, and Shao her third, Karra completed her weekend with a 6-3, 6-2 win that tallied the first point for Harvard.
Soon after, Yakoff and Shao added their own points to make it 3-1 as singles in spots four, five, and six began to play. The win completed Shao’s weekend streak of earning singles points for Harvard in all three of her matches.
Only one win was necessary to round out Harvard’s victory, and it was down to Serghi in the fourth spot, Kim at the fifth, or Braicu in sixth.
Kim and Serghi both fell to their opponents, evening the score to 3-3 and leaving it all up to Braicu.
The freshman, who had lost her first set 6-3 and won her second 6-4, entered her third set with clear determination.
Clearly up to the task, Braicu did not concede a single game to her opponent, junior Caroline Lemcke, clinching the match for Harvard and the weekend on a victory.
Next up, the Crimson will face off against Baylor University at home in the Murr Center at 11:30 am.
— Staff Writer Bianca M. Egan can be reached at [email protected].