The No. 65 women's tennis team battled two higher-seeded Ivy League opponents, No. 53 Harvard and No. 48 Dartmouth, this past weekend. After falling to the Crimson, 5-2, on Friday in Cambridge, Mass., the Bears came home two days later and defeated the Big Green by taking the doubles point and the four straight singles matches for a 5-2 victory.
Brown 2, Harvard 5
Head Coach Paul Wardlaw P'13 said both competitions were "winnable," and in tight competitions, "usually the team at home wins."
The competition at Harvard did not start well for the Bears as they lost No. 1 and 2 doubles.
"Without the doubles point, you will have to win four of the six singles," Wardlaw said.
But the Bears did have their chances to come back. In the No. 3 singles, Misia Krasowski '13 lost a close first set, 7-5, and eventually lost the match with a 6-0 second set. In the No. 6 singles, Emily Ellis '10 forced the match into a third-set tiebreaker after coming back in the second set, 6-4, but fell short in the end at 10-3.
Brown 5, Dartmouth 2
With the loss, the Bears returned to Brown on Sunday to begin their last homestand of the season against Dartmouth. The Bears got the momentum on their side first by taking the No. 2 and 3 doubles matches.
"We won the doubles point," Wardlaw said. "That was very important."
But the first round of singles did not bode well for the Bears, as they lost four of the first six sets. As a result, five of the six singles matches went into the third-set tiebreaker.
"The momentum swing came from Bianca (Aboubakare '11)" at No. 2 singles, Wardlaw said. "She lost a close first set (7-5), but came back and took 12 of the next 14 games."
Aboubakare's teammates followed suit. In the No. 4 singles match, Julie Flanzer '12 won in a similar three-set fashion, dropping a close first set, 7-6 (5), then taking the next two sets, 6-3 and 6-2. Krasowski and Marisa Schonfeld '11 won their matches in three sets also in the No. 3 and No. 5 spots, respectively, to give the Bears a 5-2 come-from-behind victory.
The Bears will travel to New Haven, Conn., for their last game of the season on Saturday at noon against Yale. Both teams currently stand at third place in the Ivy League with a 4-2 record.
