W. tennis seeks first league win at home

The Columbia Lions women’s tennis team will continue its search for its first Ivy win of the season this weekend against Harvard and Dartmouth, both of whom will open Ivy play this weekend. Cornell defeated Columbia (4-9, 0-1 Ivy) last weekend in Ithaca 6-1, but head coach Ilene Weintraub believes her team will put up a better performance at home this weekend.

“I think we were a little nervous,” Weintraub said, “and we had a lot of pressure. The girls think that Cornell is a team that they can beat. I think we will go into this weekend’s matches more relaxed.”

The Lions will open up their home Ivy season on Friday against Harvard. The Crimson (7-7) is coming off a successful spring-break training trip, where it went 3-1 against tough competition. Harvard beat UC Santa Barbara, Santa Clara and Cal State Northridge, and lost 6-1 to No. 25 San Diego State. Harvard is on a roll, coming in with a 5-3 record in March, including a win over local rival Boston College at home. All three of Harvard’s losses in March came at the hands of teams ranked in the nation’s top 60.

Harvard is led by senior Beier Ko, ranked 64th in the nation and first team all-Ivy last season, 5-5 on the season at No. 1 singles. Including matches in individual tournaments, Ko is 10-8 on the year, and second on the team in wins. Another strong player of late is Samantha Rosekrans, who went 6-2 in March. Rosekrans, playing all over the top half of the lineup, but predominantly at No. 3 and 4, is a combined 4-4 at those positions this season. With 11 victories total on the year, Rosekrans leads her team in wins.

“Harvard opens their Ivy season against us,” Weintraub said, “so all the pressure is really on them. They have had lots of injuries all season, so it’s a little bit of a guessing game for us.”

Weintraub was disappointed in her team’s performance against Cornell, but hopes that another week of practice will cure the Lions’ ills.
“I am excited to see them play,” Weintraub said, “and excited to see a difference in their performance.”

The Big Green (6-9) comes in off of a 1-3 road swing on its spring break trip to California, claiming its only win over Cal State Northridge. The leader for Dartmouth is sophomore Molly Scott, from California. Scott was named to second team all-Ivy in singles, and first team all-Ivy in doubles. This season, Scott has played consistently at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles.

“Dartmouth and Harvard are very evenly matched,” Weintraub said. “They are close in ability. They played at the Eastern College Athletic Conference championships and Dartmouth won 4-3.”

Weintraub does not believe that playing two matches in as many days will be taxing for her team.

“We have played two matches most weekends to prepare,” Weintraub said. “Cornell is the only weekend [in Ivy play] with one match. We worked out hard over spring break, so we are ready physically.”

The Lions will host Harvard at 2 p.m. on Friday, and Dartmouth on Saturday at noon. Both matches will be played at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.