The Dartmouth women's tennis team toppled No. 66 Boston College in an outstanding road performance Sunday afternoon to improve its record to 5-1. The match marked the first win for the Big Green over the Eagles in three years, and its first victory over a nationally ranked opponent this dual-match season.
The win proved especially impressive due to the significant home-court advantage held by the Boston College squad. Moreover, BC entered the match with a nine-game win streak against Ancient Eight teams, as well as an unblemished record this season against Northeast region teams.
Dartmouth managed to adapt successfully to BC's notoriously fast and dimly lit courts, which demonstrated not only the skill and toughness of the lady racketeers, but also the excellent preparation of Head Coach Bob Dallis and Assistant Coach Jesse Medvene-Collins.
The solid doubles play exhibited thus far this campaign continued against the Eagles, as Dartmouth swept the three contests. At No. 1, Lindsay Winingham '07 and Megan Zebroski '08 walloped the top BC tandem 8-4, while new team Jayme Ahmed '05 and Margaret Fitchet '08 rolled in an 8-3 victory.
The Dartmouth doubles domination persisted at the third position, where the youthful duo of Maggie Suydam '08 and Natalie O'Rourke '08 churned out a close win, edging the Eagles' No. 3 team by the score of 9-7.
The sweep vividly illustrated the continual strengthening of the lady racketeers' doubles play. In the last two meetings with BC, Dartmouth had gone 0-6 in doubles matches, a stark contrast to the 3-0 mark compiled Sunday.
"Doubles was really intense but it was nice to sweep 3-0," Kerry Snow '07 said. "I think it boosted our players' confidence to know they could win competitive doubles against a ranked team and it gave us an edge going into the singles."
In singles, the Big Green relied on the strength of a fourth-year veteran and a trio of precocious freshmen to clinch the win. Leading the way was co-captain Ahmed at No. 1, who faced BC's talented top player, Szilvia Szegedi.
After building a one-set lead, Ahmed had to contend with the inspired play of Szegedi, who picked up her game to capture the second frame in a tiebreaker. Nonetheless, Dartmouth's cagey captain remained undeterred, and closed out the match with a 6-4 third-set victory.
The win not only ended up clinching the match for the Green, but also cemented Ahmed's reputation as one of the region's top players. Szegedi earned a national ranking of 84 in last season's preseason standings, and had already compiled an undefeated 3-0 record against Ivy League foes this season, including wins over the top players at Princeton, Cornell and Columbia. Additionally, the win demonstrated Ahmed's improvement over her Dartmouth career, as Szegedi had defeated Ahmed in their last two meetings.
The remaining three wins all came from first-year players: Fitchet breezed to a 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 3, Suydam picked up a three-set triumph at No. 4 by the score of 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 and Zebroski emerged victorious in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
Fitchet continued her dominating play by utilizing the fast courts to augment the effectiveness of her already exceptional groundstrokes, while Zebroski rode her all-court game to another straight-sets win. Suydam's win was especially gratifying, as it came in her home state of Massachusetts in a tough three-set encounter.
"Once you reach a certain skill level, tennis becomes a very mental game," Suydam said. "We did a really good job yesterday of believing in ourselves and our abilities, and of knowing that we had what it took to beat the other team, despite their better ranking. We proved that if we can just come out and compete well against any given team, we should be very successful."
With its diverse talents, the freshman class, who as a group went 7-0 on the afternoon, provides a solid foundation for the next three years but also shows the maturity and toughness to defeat high-quality opponents now. This capacity should serve the team well in Ivy League competition during the spring.
"Beating BC on their home courts 5-2 was really exciting," Zebroski added. "I think it really shows how well we can compete with nationally ranked teams even though we don't currently have a national ranking ourselves. Playing teams like BC provides us with the challenges we need to continue to improve our level of play."
The Big Green return home for a pair of matches Saturday, facing off against Colgate at 9 a.m. and UMBC at 3 p.m.
