In repetition of last year's season closer, the Dartmouth women's tennis team could not pull off a win yesterday against Harvard. For two years now, the final game has come down to a 7-0 sweep by the Crimson.
The difference?
Last year's lost, as in many other years, determined the Ivy League title.
Yesterday's loss left Dartmouth staring at a last place finish in the League.
Dartmouth dropped to 1-12 overall and 0-7 in the Ivy League.
"We had an unusually bad season as far as wins and losses," Captain Trudy Muller said. "We did the best we could with what we had."
Dartmouth's one win this season came during the team's spring trip against Florida Atlantic. The Big Green won that match 6-1.
The match against Harvard, ranked in the top 20 in the nation, was nothing new for the Big Green this season.
"Harvard is just a level above what we've been doing," Muller said.
Katie Kirkmire '98 managed to hold her opponent, who played at number one during her freshman year, for most of the first set, losing 7-5, 6-2.
Freshman Courtney Dill also played well at number five singles. Dill took her first set 6-2 but dropped the next two to lose the match.
In doubles action, Harvard took all three matches, defeating the number one, two and three seeds 8-0, 8-1 and 8-6, respectively.
At three, Sarah Anderson '99 and Dill, facing a 7-2 deficit, came back but could not quite convert to a win.
According to Muller, the team hopes to regroup before next season and to make it back to the level it has been playing at in previous years.
"I'm really confident that next year we'll be back to the standards of Dartmouth tennis," Muller said.
