Coming into Cambridge, Mass., on Sunday, Kelley Kirkpatrick '08 was looking to cap off her college career. The other 10 women's tennis players wanted to finish off the season strong with the hope of gaining momentum for next year.
Both mentalities led to the desired result: a 4-3 win over Harvard (2-16 overall, 2-4 Ivy League).
Yet again this season, the contest came down to the doubles point for the Bears (11-9, 2-5). It was the pairing of Kirkpatrick and Sara Mansur '09 that clinched the doubles point with an 8-6 win, leading the team to a sweep of the doubles point.
After a last-minute lineup switch, Head Coach Paul Wardlaw was confident that Bruno could win at No. 5 and No. 6 singles. But with the top four singles seeds struggling early, the team needed somebody high in the ladder to step up to secure the fourth point.
Bianca Aboubakare '11 answered that challenge, turning a 5-3 first-set deficit into a 7-5 victory.
"Once she won the first set, the whole team could breathe," Wardlaw said.
Aboubakare dominated the second set, going on to win it 6-2. Surprisingly (and for Brown, mysteriously), Aboubakare's opponent was not the Crimson's normal No. 1 singles player, No. 102 in the nation Beier Ko. Ko, who played doubles earlier in the day but sat out for the singles, pushing everybody else up a seed, told the Herald in an interview that an illness prompted her withdrawal.
"I just wasn't really feeling well on that day," she said. "I tried to play doubles and I thought it would be better to sit out in singles."
This change left Wardlaw confident that Brown could win at the final two seeds, and he was right. No. 5 Marisa Schonfeld '11 won 6-1, 6-0, and No. 6 Alexa Baggio '09 won 6-4, 6-1.
It turned out that the team needed Aboubakare to win since the second through fourth seeds all eventually lost. No. 2 Mansur dropped her match 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, No. 3 Tanja Vucetic '10 lost 6-2, 7-6 (2), and No. 4 Brett Finkelstein '09 fell 6-1, 7-6 (9).
The 4-3 win capped off a challenging weekend-and season. In the final home contest of the season on Friday, the Bears lost 4-3 to Dartmouth (15-4, 3-3), the fourth time in six conference matches Brown lost by one point.
The team split the six singles matches but lost the doubles point in a sweep. Wins came from Aboubakare (6-3, 2-6, 6-1), Vucetic (2-6, 7-6 [5], 1-1 [2]) and Schonfeld at No. 6 this time (6-4, 6-0). Mansur (6-1, 6-1), Finkelstein (6-3, 6-3) and Baggio at No. 5 (4-6, 6-2, 6-1) were on the losing side of their matches.
After winning her first set, Baggio looked like she could have provided a victory. But she dropped her last two sets, Wardlaw said, because Dartmouth changed strategy, attacking Baggio's backhand.
"I changed what I was doing," Baggio said on Friday. "I have it in me to make the difference and today I didn't."
Vucetic's match entered its third set just before Baggio lost. She played, and won, a tiebreaker at 1-1 once the overall match was decided for Dartmouth.
Wardlaw and Assistant Coach Cecily Dubusker expressed their disappointment to the team after the match. In particular, Wardlaw said he addressed the team's lack of intensity.
"They had more to give than we had given on that day," he said. "It was like we were reserved and holding back. When it came down to big points, we didn't capitalize on big situations."
The weekend matches were the first outdoor ones of the spring, and Friday's contest featured moderate winds and some difficult shadows on the court. Dubusker said there isn't a reason the players should struggle outside-where they practiced during spring break-but the difficulty in adapting to new situations has been common this season.
"We have a hard time adjusting, to changing our mind, in the face of variables," she said.
Despite the disappointing result on Friday, with Brown's second conference win of the season on Sunday came an end to a season had many encouraging signs for players.
"Compared to last year, they've made some big strides," Wardlaw said.
In particular, he noted the jumps made by Vucetic and Finkelstein, who alternated between No. 3 and No. 4 during the conference season. Vucetic played No. 6 singles last year, while Finkelstein was ranked ninth on the depth chart during her oft-injured sophomore season.
The freshmen have contributed enormously, as well. Aboubakare's wins this weekend put her at 6-1 in conference matches, making her the clear favorite for Ivy League Rookie of the Year. In Wardlaw's mind, she might have even secured her spot as Player of the Year.
Aboubakare could make a strong case for the title. The only other 6-1 player in the league at No. 1 is Yale's Janet Kim, whom Aboubakare crushed, 6-1, 6-2. Aboubakare's lone loss came against Pennsylvania's Ekaterina Kosminskaya, ranked 124th in the country, but Kosminskaya is 4-1 after a loss to Kim and missing two matches due to an injury.
Kosminskaya might have an advantage since she is ranked No. 33 in doubles, where her record is 4-1, including a win over the Bears. Kim is 6-1 in doubles, but one of those wins came as a No. 2 seed against Brown. Aboubakare and Schonfeld are unranked with a 5-2 Ivy record at No. 1 doubles.
Including both the fall and spring seasons, four Brown players finished with win totals at singles among the top 15 in school history. Aboubakare's 28 wins ranks second all-time, followed on the team by Vucetic, whose 25 wins put her at fifth all-time. Finkelstein's 22 wins and Schonfeld's 20 wins put them at 13th and 15th, respectively.
In addition, the doubles combination of Aboubakare and Schonfeld won 19 doubles matches together, a Brown record.
Next year's team will have a very different-looking roster. Even though Kirkpatrick is the only player graduating, five incoming freshmen will change the dynamic of the team.
The class of 2012, which includes four "five-star recruits," is ranked 10th in the country by tennisrecruiting.net. But the new classes also are strong at Princeton and Harvard, ranking first and eighth, respectively.
The recruiting class is Brown's strongest since Wardlaw and Dubusker took over the program in the fall of 2004, they said. The coaches know that such strong players have high expectations.
"They're coming here to win an Ivy championship," Wardlaw said.
Dubusker said that the returning players know that they will need to have a strong summer to prepare for the fall season.
"They don't want to come into next year being outplayed by freshmen," she said.
Aboubakare, whose sister Carissa is among next year's freshman class, said she's not worried about her role on the team next year.
"I really don't care what position I play ... as long as I get my win," she said.
In fact, she said that the pressure to defend her top seed that might be brought on by the new players could be beneficial.
"I don't mind (pressure) at all," Aboubakare said. "It actually keeps me on my toes and helps me do better."
As Kirkpatrick graduates with the intention of applying to medical school, there will be some doctoring needed for next year's team.
On a literal level, Itsuka Kurihara '11 needs surgery on her shoulder after she partially tore her cartilage. Although she won't be able to swing a racket for another year, she will continue to be active on the sidelines; Schonfeld credits her support and advice on Friday for helping turn around her deficit.
That sort of contribution to the team will be necessary as new players come in and roles change. Vucetic said she understands what will be expected of the upperclassmen on next year's team.
"(We) just want to be leaders and step up when we need to in terms of tennis and team dynamics," the sophomore said.
As somebody who has progressed from an inexperienced freshman to a veteran player, Kirkpatrick said she has enjoyed playing for the team on many different levels.
"It's been an amazing four years with a bunch of girls who are going to be
my friends for life," she said. "Finishing the season with a win obviously makes the season extra special."
