Ranked Foes Drop Harvard Twice

By Eric L. Michel, Crimson Staff Writer January 31, 2011

Audrey I Anderson

Sophomore Kristin Norton, shown above, and the women’s tennis team had a rough weekend at the ITA Division I Kickoff competition. Harvard came up short against Boise State on Saturday and was dominated by Northwestern yesterday afternoon. The Crimson fell to 1-2 on the season.

Against strong competition, the Crimson women’s tennis team was unable to pull out a victory this weekend in the ITA Division I Kickoff Weekend. Four top-50 squads met in Evanston, Ill., to take part in the event, which was held this weekend in 15 sites nationwide. No. 44 Harvard (1-2) lost to No. 20 Northwestern (1-2), 5-0, on Saturday and fell a match short yesterday against No. 38 Boise State (3-1).

“Overall, I thought they got some good matches and good experience,” Harvard coach Traci Green said. “The most important thing we take away from this weekend is that we got tougher and more experienced.”

NO. 38 BOISE STATE 4, HARVARD 3

The Broncos, fresh off a 5-2 loss to No. 34 Nebraska (1-0) on Saturday, played well against Harvard yesterday in a contest featuring two closely matched squads.

“We had our chances and we could have won, but a couple of matches didn’t go our way,” junior co-captain Holly Cao said.

Harvard opened the match by losing the doubles point for the third consecutive match this season. On the No. 3 court, freshman Hannah Morrill and sophomore Kristin Norton gave Boise State its first match with an 8-5 loss.

“In doubles, we got some slow starts and really couldn’t recover,” Green said.

Cao and Samantha Rosekrans, Harvard’s other co-captain, tied the doubles score with a win on the No. 1 court, 8-6.

“It was a very close match. But we stayed tough and ultimately we were able to close it out,” Cao said.

Next to them, freshman Natalie Blosser and sophomore Hideko Tachibana were edged out of a win, falling, 8-6, giving the Broncos a 1-0 advantage moving into singles.

In singles, No. 46 Cao didn’t lose a game in either set against Boise State’s Lauren Megale to even up the score.

“Holly was really on fire in singles,” Green said. “She’s a really special player for us. She came out on fire and pretty much ran through her opponent.”

But the Broncos took the upper hand for a second time when Blosser lost to Marlena Pietzuch, 6-0, 6-1.

Boise State then moved within a point of clinching with Morgan Basil’s 6-1, 6-3 victory over Morrill.

Norton kept Harvard’s hopes alive with a 6-3, 6-2 win on the No 3 court.