The women's tennis team suffered only its second loss of the fall season to Boston College Wednesday, 6-3. After moving indoors to what Coach Chris Kerr called "pathetic facilities,." B.C. swept the Big Green 3-0 in the doubles matches.
Dartmouth went in to the match with nothing to lose. "B.C. is an awesome team and is ranked in the top 16 in the Eastern Division. My girls went in there with confidence that they could perform although B.C. has a very strong program," Kerr said.
As the afternoon matches began, freshmen sensation Rebecca Dirksen battled her opponent for almost three hours in an epic three-setter. Dirksen made a valiant effort with a hustle that Kerr called "unbelievable" but, in the end, was not able to come through against her older, more experienced opponent.
The women lost another amazing battle at number two singles when Allison Taff was also ousted in three sets. Again, B.C.'s veteran player hung in there and played the big points excellently.
Captain Kallie Buehler '97 lost in straight sets, despite playing for over two hours. Buehler served excellently and relied on her deep volleys to keep her opponent scrambling. But Buehler was unable to match the consistency of the opposition and suffered only her second loss of the season.
With the score 0-3, the Big Green women stepped it up at four, five and six singles with wins from Katie Kirkmire '98 Michelle Bray '00 and Jennifer Lange '00
The Big Green gained the ever-crucial momentum going in to doubles play, but then disaster struck. Due to extreme darkness, the women were forced to move indoors to a facility that would contribute significantly to B.C.'s victory.
"With the matches already started, it was tough to change courts, " Kerr said. "Since our doubles matches are only eight-game pro-sets, it is difficult to adjust to new courts when we were already half way through our matches.."
The B.C. courts were by no means regulation, as the players had no backdrops and tried desperately to ignore the noises and sights of the fencing and aerobics classes that bordered the courts. To top it off, there was even a track with joggers and walkers encompassing the courts.
The drastic change in scenery adversely affected Dartmouth as it dropped all three doubles matches to concede the match 6-3.
"This was a joke," Kerr said. "I should have not played on these courts. They did not even let us warm up. Those girls practice with the distractions indoors all of the time. Since the dubs is so short, we had no time to adjust. It was really a pity because I thought we would have certainly won the match if we had more time to get a feel of these courts."