The Boston University women’s tennis team, in the midst of a seemingly interminable road trip, lost to Harvard University, 4-3, at Murr Center on Saturday. The Terriers drop to a record of 4-4 this spring.
The doubles matches were bitterly contested, with two of the three ending in 9-8 tiebreaker victories for the Crimson. Harvard’s Sanja Bajin and Sanaz Ghazal, a freshman and junior, respectively, edged out the Terriers’ No. 1 tandem of junior Christina Causway and senior captain Carrie Rose. In the other doubles squeaker, Fleur Broughton and Lola Ajilore defeated freshmen Lindsey Dynof and Elena deMendoza.
“It really could’ve gone our way,” said BU coach Lesley Sheehan. “[Causway and Rose] were down, 7-4, and they came back and almost won it. The whole time it was neck and neck.”
“They were all very good points,” she added. “It wasn’t like we made unforced errors.”
Harvard completed its sweep of doubles play, defeating BU’s Alana Marcu and senior captain and doubles specialist Hsiao Ning Ham, 8-4. Winning the doubles point proved to be critical in light of singles match play.
In the No. 1 singles match, Causway fell to Bajin in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2. In the longest match of the afternoon (two and a half hours), Rose narrowly defeated Ghazal 7-5, 1-6, 7-5. Considering her long doubles match, Rose played a total of more than four hours of tennis. In the No. 3 spot, Dynof, still feeling the aftereffects of missing two weeks, lost in straight sets to Broughton, 7-5, 6-4. Despite missing two weeks of the season with a strained Achilles, Sheehan said the pain in her foot does not affect her play.
In the rest of singles play, deMendoza defeated Lara Naqushbandi, 6-3, 6-4. In the No. 5 spot, Marcu needed three sets to take care of Ajilore, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. For Marcu, it was quite an achievement in the eyes of her coach.
“Lola is an aggressive and strong player who bangs the ball with a lot of power,” Sheehan said. “That was a great win [for Marcu].”
In the No. 6 slot, freshman Hannah Bartell lost in straight sets to Jennie Timoney, 6-4, 6-3. Despite the loss, Sheehan was pleased with her team’s overall play and the circumstances created by the schedule.
“It was a disappointment to play so well for so long only to lose,” she said. “[Harvard] was afraid at one point during the match they were going to lose. They were probably picked to beat us.
“We have teams on our schedule who are ranked nationally. We’re on the road the whole month of March, and it takes a lot out of us both physically and mentally.”
With respect to BU’s next opponent, Brown University, Sheehan said she thinks her team will be ready.
“We played them in a scrimmage match in early February,” she said. “I think we’re playing good teams now. If we have the whole team contributing rather than the same people all the time, we’ll have a good chance to win.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
