Playing some of the most powerful teams in the East at the ITA Regionals in New Haven, the Dartmouth women's tennis team performed creditably. The team lost narrowly to No. 2 seed Boston College, 5-3, and No. 4 seed Yale, 5-4, on Friday before beating Seton Hall, 5-1, on Saturday. Allison Taff '00 led the way, winning all three of her singles matches and contributing strong doubles play with partner Rebecca Dirksen '00. In total the women played a grueling fifteen hours of tennis over the two days, eleven on Friday, according to Coach Chris Kerr. The Big Green will get a chance to avenge their loss to Boston College when they face them in Hanover this afternoon.
"In a tournament like this", she said," kids that were already fighters do exactly that, while those who weren't match-tough learn to be."
"The atmosphere of regionals is much more intense than a regular dual match. Every match that is played is against a top team so regionals is about being mentally tough and playing with heart," co-captain Sarah Anderson '99 said.
In terms of team goals, the Big Green did well, proving themselves competitive against some of the East's best. "The most important thing we took away from this weekend is that we now know we have the talent to upset some excellent teams," Taff said. "We only lost to BC 5-4, and our match against Yale was also very competitive, [with both] coming down to converting one more point to produce a win."
The team's play against BC was encouraging. Dirksen at No. 1 singles beat opponent Barbara Privrel in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 and Taff at No. 3 and Carolyn Roth '01 at No. 5 both won in straight sets against the #2 seeded team in the East. Although Dartmouth dropped the rest of its matches to lose 5-3, BC won the fifth and deciding match when Dartmouth's 1st-doubles team was up 7-5 in an eight-game pro set. One more game and the Big Green could have made it a 5-4 match, competitive by anyone's standards.
Against Yale just a few hours later, the team suffered something of a letdown. Dartmouth found itself in a 4-1 hole after five singles matches and couldn't quite come back. With her team on the ropes, sophomore Jenny Lange pulled out a close match in the third-set tiebreaker to cut the deficit to 4-2 and qualify her as one of the fighters. But Dartmouth, despite subsequent wins by No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, couldn't hold on as a team and fell, 5-4.
Dartmouth came back on Saturday morning against Seton Hall, with a sweep of the top 5 singles positions accounting for the victory. Dirksen and Taff won in straight sets, while Michelle Bray '00 at No. 2, Courtney Smalley '01 at No. 4, and Roth fashioned three-set triumphs.
Also, the matches were important to sophomores Dirksen and Taff in clarifying their individual standings in the upcoming Rolex regionals, which pit top singles players and doubles teams against each other. Dirksen helped herself by winning two of three matches over the weekend against fellow No. 1 seeds, and is expected to be among the 16 ranked players.
By winning all three of her matches this weekend, Taff has put herself in position to nab a prime single spot as well.
"I played some of the best tennis this weekend because everything came together at the right time," she said. "Our team has been playing a lot lately, and I can notice how much more mentally tough I am from just the past three weeks."
She added that she and doubles partner Dirksen were "improving together through the experience of playing in these tournaments." Dirksen and Taff are ranked in the top 15 in the East in doubles and are likely to be ranked as a team.
Co-captain Jeana Chung '99 thought this weekend meant a lot to the team.
"I really think that the team gained a lot more match experience. Also, the competition was tough, so it gave us a good look at what we need to do for the match on Tuesday and for the spring," she said.
"We left Saturday knowing that we have the ability to beat either of these teams in the future," Taff said. "This Tuesday will be another chance to see what we can do against BC."
Smalley added that after such a close call, the team would be looking to avenge Boston College, whom they play today at 2 p.m. on the Topliff courts.
