CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The Dartmouth women's tennis team visited Harvard this weekend for the Harvard Invitational, and turned a few heads.
The seven-player team that Coach Jennifer Callen brought consisted of five freshmen, one sophomore and one junior. Despite the inexperience of the group, they played very well in the tournament and even brought home some hardware.
Playing in flight one of the singles draw, Catherine Crandall '04 drew the unenviable task of playing Sanja Bajin, Harvard's top player. Crandall had trouble in the first set, but gave Bajin a scare in the second, dropping the match 6-0, 6-4.
Crandall then lost a gut-wrenching match to Boston College's number two, Kiren Fernando, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.
Crandall then met Forbes Thompson, the number one at Davidson College, and was given two free games due to her opponent's late appearance. Crandall capitalized and stormed to a 6-2 first set.
She then ran into trouble with her serve, and fell 6-4 and 6-1 in the latter sets. Although the results don't show it, Crandall has made an impression on her coach.
"She will play somewhere in the top three this year," Callen said.
This weekend's best surprise was Kelsey Surbaugh '04. Surbaugh was coming off an injury, and was doubtful to play, but ended up playing flight five of singles.
Surbaugh played a tough match against Harvard's Liz Gass, one in which Surbaugh was regularly playing defensively several feet behind the baseline. She outlasted Gass 6-1, 1-6, 7-5 to advance.
Surbaugh then picked up her play and became the aggressor, spanking BC's Angela Niznik 6-0, 6-1. Surbaugh then played a third outstanding match in the final to beat Susan Chernenco of Harvard, 7-6, 6-4, to win her first college tournament.
Arden Fredeking '04 and Christine Miller '04 both provided their own fireworks, winning two matches each.
Fredeking took third place in flight two, beating Alana Marcu of BU 6-1, 6-1, before falling to eventual champion Linsay Offutt of Davidson, 6-3, 6-3.
Fredeking then played an amazing match against BC's number three Alison Ashley authoring a gorgeous come from behind victory, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
"Arden should compete to play in the top six as well if she keeps playing like this," Callen said.
Miller, playing flight three, looked shaky in her first match, losing badly to Harvard's Jennie Timoney, 6-1, 6-0.
Miller then came out on Saturday looking like an entirely different player, beating Jasmine Hilu of Davidson, 7-6, 6-2.
Miller capped off her turnaround against another Harvard top-six player, Sarah McGinty. Miller used a blistering serve and a solid groundstroke game that forced McGinty into numerous mistakes. Miller took the match 6-4, 6-4, garnering fifth place.
Also playing for Dartmouth were flight four players Lisa Francasio '03 and Michael Rozas '02.
Francasio looked overmatched at times, but stuck it out against eventual champion Hannah Bartell of BU, Gayle Jones of Davidson, and Bomy Hong of Harvard.
Rozas lost a tough opening match to Elisa Glas of BU, 6-3, 6-4, hindered by some up and down play that appeared at critical moments.
She came back and played a great all-around match on Saturday, beating Hong 6-4, 6-2 and showing her potential.
Rozas looked good against Jones on Sunday, getting up 5-2 two in the first set tiebreak, before falling 8-6 in the tiebreak and 6-2 in the second set.
Rozas looks like she could pop into the fifth and sixth singles mix with a little more match experience.
Dartmouth also had a doubles team in each of the three flights, but did not come away with a victory. The results were, however, better than last week.
Crandall and Miller looked out of sync on Friday, losing 8-0 to Thompson and Offutt.
They got progressively better losing 8-2 to BU's best doubles team, and playing some solid doubles in an 8-4 loss to BU's second doubles team.
Fredeking and Rozas, in flight two, were tough to beat, but just couldn't come away with a victory. They fell 8-6 to Hong and Gass and 8-4 to Ashley and Ruta Veitas.
Surbaugh filled in for Rozas on Sunday, and Kelsey and Arden lost a tough match to Niznik and Jessica Engle 8-6.
Francasio and playing partner Katie Lopez, a walk-on freshman, at times looked like the best combination the Big Green had out there. Although they were in every match, they too lost three straight matches.
On the whole, Dartmouth's young players improved greatly from the Penn tournament of a week ago.
With Crandall a lock to start, Fredeking and Miller in the mix and Rozas and Surbaugh on their way, the youngsters look to play a huge factor this year.
The only thing apparently lacking is in the way of doubles, but that should come into focus with the return of the team's upperclassmen. Callen thinks this team might even be better than last year.
"This year's team has much more depth than last year, when we were top heavy," Callen said.
The loss of Rebecca "Dirksen is huge, but with Catherine playing this well we should be ok there. When the girls come back from leave terms and we find some doubles chemistry, I think we'll be all set," she said.
