Crimson Falls to Cavaliers, 5-2 Courtesy: Harvard Athletic Communications

Charlottesville, Va.-- The Harvard women's tennis team fell to No. 53 Virginia, 5-2, on Saturday afternoon in the first of two matches the Crimson will play in Virginia over the three-day weekend. The Crimson also faces No. 16 William & Mary Monday at 1 p.m.

Virginia was able to win two of three matches to record the doubles point and jump out to the early 1-0 lead. The No. 1 doubles pair of Laura Peterzan and Stephanie Schnitter won their match, 8-6. The turning point in doubles was at No. 2 between Harvard's Beier Ko and Samantha Rosekrans and Virginia's Maggie Yahner and Lara Alexander. The match went back and forth with the Virginia pair ultimately prevailing in a tiebreaker, 9-8(2).

"The doubles point slipped away from us today," said head coach Traci Green. "Virginia came out on fire with a great crowd and took an early lead."

Ko captured her second straight win at No. 1 singles over Amanda Rales, 6-0, 6-3. Rosekrans remained undefeated in her freshman campaign after beating Virginia's Hampton Williams, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 6.

"It was especially nice to see Sam Rosekrans back in the lineup after being sidelined for a few months during injury."

Virginia marked the third ranked team the Crimson has faced this year and Green believes it will help her team get stronger as the weather gets warmer.

"I am very proud of how our entire team competed and kept their composure. We've had a tough start this season with injuries, but our play today was very encouraging for future matches."

Boston University Match Recap by Team Menbers Margarita Krivitski '11 and Rachel Gottleib '09

After fueling up at a team breakfast at 7:45am, we took the very short trip over to neighboring Boston University and began warming up at around 9am. Intrigued by the inclined track around the courts many of us took a few laps of exploration, followed by light jogging and a dynamic warm-up. We hit for about an hour, working on adjusting to the different, slower surface until introductions and the official beginning of the match. The doubles matches were all extremely close and well-fought, with many great points played by each team. Though we lost the doubles point we went into the singles determined to fight hard and play our best tennis.

The first four singles went on in an atmosphere of high intensity and Beier was quick to take advantage of the mood, playing decisive tennis and getting us on the scoreboard. Laura played a tough three-set match, playing great defense and fighting hard to pull out the third set 6-1. Stephanie and Cat both battled hard, making both of their matches particularly tight and exciting. Lizzie and Sam went on court next, with Lizzie playing solid tennis from the baseline throughout her match and Sam introducing variety, especially drop shots, throughout her two-set win. Though we lost the match 3-4, we definitely grew as a team and learned many lessons that will carry us forward in our season. We are all excited to continue working hard in practice and look forward to the matches to come.
~ Rachel and Margarita