A shake-up on the women's tennis team was meant to maximize Brown's opportunities this weekend after three close losses in the start of the conference season. Another close loss - to Cornell - brought more frustrations, but a blowout win against Columbia has the team hoping it has turned the corner.
On Saturday, Brown (10-8, 1-4 Ivy) captured its first conference win, 7-0, over Columbia (2-12, 0-5), winning every set in singles matches. However, Bruno fell 4-3 the day before to Cornell (9-5, 2-3), marking the Bears' third one-point defeat of the Ivy season.
At Ithaca, N.Y., on Friday afternoon, Brown "came out flat," said Head Coach Paul Wardlaw. The team started off in a 1-0 hole after dropping two of the three doubles pro sets.
Thus, the slightly tweaked singles lineup took the court having to win four out of six matches.
For the trip to New York, Tanja Vucetic '10 was rewarded for her 3-0 conference start at No. 4 with a promotion to No. 3, sending Brett Finkelstein '09, 0-3 in Ivy League play, down a seed.
At the top, it was business as usual for Bianca Aboubakare '11. After a rare three-set loss to Pennsylvania the weekend before, the No. 1 seed beat her Cornell opponent, 6-4, 6-4.
Aboubakare said she should have won by a wider margin, but she was still mentally recovering from her first loss in almost two months.
"I kind of had some loss of confidence after the loss," the freshman said.
Wardlaw said he just needed to "wind her up and let her go" after reassuring Aboubakare of her strengths.
At No. 2 on Friday, Sara Mansur '09 was engaged in a tough three-setter for the third straight match. Mansur dropped the Cornell match 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-4.
In the first set, Mansur took a 5-2 lead in the tiebreaker before losing five points in a row. She then cruised to a 6-2 victory in the second set and started up 4-3 in the third before losing three straight games.
"I had a little bit of a mental glitch," Mansur said. "I knew there was a lot of pressure on my shoulders, and I just didn't compete the way I should have."
"She was pretty upset about the way that she played," said Assistant Coach Cecily Dubusker. "She's tired of losing that way, as she should be."
Making her debut at No. 3, Vucetic faced one of the best servers in the conference in Tamara John. The Cornell junior used her serve - which the Cornell athletic Web site claims can hit 120 mph - to outlast Vucetic in a back-and-forth three-setter, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Particularly in the final set, John showcased her overwhelming serve, blanking Vucetic in her first two service games without even committing a fault.
Vucetic acknowledged that the conference challengers have been very competitive, leading to three-set matches in her first four Ivy outings.
"I'm probably not getting as many free points as I'm used to," she said. "They don't miss as much, that's for sure."
Finkelstein won at No. 4 singles, but her failure to close out the match in two sets delayed a much-needed victory for the team.
She quickly gained a 6-1, 4-1 lead and was one point away from 5-1. At that point, the first, fifth and sixth seeds had already finished and the score was tied 2-2.
But Finkelstein couldn't wrap up her match, losing the second set 6-4 after dropping five straight games. She recovered in the next set with a 7-5 win, but the team had dropped two straight matches by the time she finished, meaning Cornell had already secured the victory.
"I feel like if I had won that second set, that whole match might have been turned around," Finkelstein said.
When asked about her downgrade to fourth seed, Finkelstein said she didn't want to comment.
At No. 5, Marisa Schonfeld '11 was overmatched for the first time in conference play, Wardlaw said.
Schonfeld fell 6-0 in the first set, but she lost a closer second set, 6-4.
She said her defeat was a combination of not winning her own game points as well as some precise hitting from her opponent.
"She was nailing every single line," Schonfeld said. "How can you slap that many balls on the court ... and have them hit the line and not have them be out by an inch occasionally?"
Dubusker said the highlight of the weekend came from the performance of Alexa Baggio '09. Playing at No. 6 against Cornell, Baggio won 6-1, 6-3, and she won again on Saturday at No. 5.
"I think Alexa's been playing very brave tennis," Dubusker said. "She's been putting a lot of balls on the court."
After playing at the No. 4 seed for much of last season, Baggio has adapted to her new role this season and aims to deliver victories when asked.
"For me to be in and out of the lineup just means we're getting better," she said. "Now that I'm in, I have to take care of business."
After the tough loss, the team took no prisoners against Columbia on Saturday. Brown swept the doubles pro sets, though two of the contests were close. But when it came to singles, the Bears made few mistakes, with each player winning in straight sets.
The rout was especially important for Mansur, who won her match 6-3, 6-2. By being more willing to engage in long points, she resisted the temptation to aim for too many winners, she said. She said her win was mentally important to her as she prepares for the final two contests of the season this weekend.
"I have a little bit more confidence going into (the weekend), finally winning something," she said.
Aboubakare and Finkelstein finished off their weekend sweeps quickly. Aboubakare won 6-2, 6-4 at No. 1 and Finkelstein prevailed 6-3, 6-2 at No. 4. No. 3 Vucetic bounced back from Friday's loss with a 6-4, 6-0 win.
After Baggio's impressive win against Cornell, the coaches moved her to the fifth seed for the Columbia match, in which she won 6-2, 6-1. Schonfeld, now at No. 6, also won 6-2, 6-1.
Though the team won't be able to match its 4-3 conference record from last season, the individual match record of 18-17 shows how close the Bears have come to beating the top conference opponents.
"From a big picture standpoint, if you're just looking at numbers, it's disappointing," Wardlaw said. "But if you're looking at how the team's playing this year and has played in Ivies, we've stepped up from last year."
Finkelstein, in her third year on the team, said this year's squad has played well enough to have a better record.
"I think it's extremely frustrating because we are as good as all these other teams," Finkelstein said. "It's really hard to get out there and walk out (losing) 4-3 each time."
Now that the team has earned its first Ivy win, the players have shown they are able to learn from their losses and bounce back.
"I don't think that our team is disheartened by our past upsets," Schonfeld said."We've kind of turned that into positive energy now that we know we can get close to those teams."
If the team can build on its first win in next weekend's matches, Bruno might be able to end the season on a high note.
With just one graduating senior, the Bears will set a strong tone for next year's team with their performance in their final two matches. They will host No. 72 Dartmouth (14-3, 2-2) on Friday at 2 p.m. at the Pizzitola Center, and then finish up their season at noon on Sunday at Harvard (2-14, 2-2).
