On Friday, Dartmouth succumbed to Princeton 6-1 at the Jadwin Gym tennis courts before losing to No. 41 University of Pennsylvania, 6-1, at Lott Courts in Levy Pavillion.
Prior to this weekend's matches, the women in green were carrying a seven-game losing streak with their last win on Feb. 25 against the University of Connecticut.
"We've had a lot of really close matches recently that could have gone either way, especially against Columbia," Lindsay Winingham '07 said. "It just comes down to a few key points and needing to convert on third-set matches."
Against Princeton (8-9, 2-3 Ivy), all three doubles matches were close but the Tigers were able to pick up the point by getting a sweep.
Dartmouth's (4-13, 0-4 Ivy) best showing was from the No. 1 pairing of Megan Zebroski '08 and Natalie O'Rourke '08, who went into the match winners of their last three doubles contests. The match went down to the wire before they fell 9-8(6).
In other doubles action, Winingham and Kerry Snow '07 lost 8-4, while the No. 3 team of co-captain Ann Scott '06 and Jamie Caplan '09 lost 8-5. In singles action, Zebroski and Snow stepped up and forced their respective matches to third sets.
At No. 1, Zebroski had to come from behind after she lost the first set 5-7. But is was her tenacity that got her back into the match as she picked up the second 7-6(5) before going on to win the third 1-0(4).
Snow got off to a great start by squeaking out the first set before falling 5-7, 7-5, 1-0(5).
On Saturday, Dartmouth went up against the Quakers (10-5, 4-1 Ivy) who were coming off their first Ivy League loss of the season to Harvard the day before. Penn wasted little time at No. 1 doubles, winning 8-1. However, the Big Green fought back in the other two matches. Winingham and Snow posted an 8-7(5) victory at No. 2, but Dartmouth lost the swing match at No. 3, 8-6.
In singles, matches four through six were fairly easy victories for the Quakers, but it was the top half of Dartmouth's squad that gave them trouble.
Zebroski took on Penn's top player Yulia Rivelis, who was named first-team All-Ivy last year. Rivelis won the first set 6-1, but Zebroski fought her way back before falling in the second set 6-4.
At No. 2, Winingham played her best set of tennis since recovering from her injury. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to win as she lost the match 7-5, 6-0.
"My wrist injury means that I have to slice all of my backhands and does have an effect on my game, but it's just nice to be out on the court and playing again," said Winingham.
"I try to not see it as a downfall when I'm out there. I feel like I am improving with each match and learning how to work my strategy using a slice backhand and setting up my forehand."
Dartmouth's star of the day was Snow, who played another three setter.
This time she came out on the winning end by defeating Alexis Plukas 6-3, 2-6, 1-0(7).
Despite the nine-match losing streak, the team's morale remains very high.
"All of our team talks after the matches are really positive, and I think Bob is proud of the way that we go about competing as hard as we can for every match," said Winingham.
"As we've seen recently by other Ivy League results, the teams are so close that anyone can beat anyone else on a given day. The matches against Yale and Brown this weekend should be a battle, and we're really looking forward to the competition. If we keep up the same energy level and fight that we've gone into each match with thus far, it should be a great weekend."
Dartmouth will be in Providence, R.I. next Friday to take on Brown for a 3 p.m. start.
