The No. 48 Dartmouth women's tennis team split its two Ivy League matches this weekend, defeating the unranked University of Pennsylvania 6-1 on Friday and suffering its first conference loss at the hands of No. 28 Princeton University, who beat the Big Green 6-1 on Saturday. The loss to the Tigers crippled the Big Green's chances of taking the Ivy League title for the first time in school history.
The weekend got off to a winning start when Dartmouth (16-3, 3-1 Ivy) took the doubles point at Penn (4-12, 0-4 Ivy). Nationally-ranked doubles pair Molly Scott '11 and Mary Beth Winingham '10 escaped with an 8-7 win over the Quakers' veteran duo Alexa Ely and Jacqueline Wong at No. 1 doubles.
No 2. doubles Sarah Leonard '13 and Carissa King '12 and No. 3 doubles Georgiana Smyser '11 and Jesse Adler '10 followed with wins to secure the doubles point.
"We did not start off very well in doubles," co-captain Adler said. "It wasn't the prettiest tennis, but we fought hard."
In singles, all but one Big Green player won her match. Scott came back from a quick first set loss and claimed the match in three sets with scores of 2-6, 6-0 and 6-3. Winingham continued her strong play in singles, winning her No. 2 singles match, 6-2, 7-6.
Adler took care of Penn's Jules Rodin in quick fashion, 6-2, 6-0, and Ryan Reichel '11 started at No. 4 singles but dropped her match, 6-2, 6-1.
Carley Markovitz '10 blanked her opponent, winning 6-0, 6-0, while co-captain Julia Zak '10 played at No. 6 singles and bested her opponent, 6-4, 6-3.
"We knew going into the match we were a bit better than Penn," head coach Robert Dallis said. "It was a good effort by the whole team."
On their next stop, the Big Green women traveled to Princeton, N.J., to take on the Tigers a team undefeated in official Ivy competition (18-5, 5-0 Ivy). The two squads had squared off in the ECAC Indoor Championships in February, with the Big Green defeating Princeton, 4-3, to advance to the event's final.
On Saturday, the two teams battled on outdoor courts, and Dartmouth could not make it two in a row.
"It's hard to say what was different playing Princeton this time than from when we played them in February," Adler said. "Things just didn't fall our way, and we had some bad luck."
Despite Scott and Winingham's big win at first doubles, the Big Green lost the other two doubles matches and dropped the doubles point.
In an exciting matchup, the red hot Scott and Winingham pairing took on Hilary Bartlett and Taylor Marable, the 19th ranked doubles partners in the nation. After reaching a 7-7 tie, the Dartmouth duo took the match, winning the tiebreaker, 7-5.
"[Scott] and [Winningham] continued their strong play in doubles," Dallis said. "They will no doubt move up in the national rankings when they come out this week."
Winingham carried that momentum into her singles match and defeated Princeton's Rachel Saiontz in a third-set tiebreaker, 6-3, 4-6, (12-10). Winingham's victory was the lone bright spot for the Big Green singles lineup on an otherwise frustrating day.
Scott lost to long-time foe Bartlett, 6-3, 6-1, at first singles, while Leonard lost to Tigers senior Melissa Saiontz, 6-4, 6-3, at No. 2 singles.
Adler and Markovitz both lost their matches in second set tiebreakers, and Smyser was defeated by Blakely Ashley, 6-4, 6-1.
"There is a fine line in sports between winning and losing," Dallis said. "[Princeton] played a bit better than us on this day."
The loss was Dartmouth's first in the Ivy League. It will now be difficult for the Big Green to catch the 5-0 Princeton squad and capture its first-ever Ivy League title.
"I don't really focus on that," Dallis said. "Our focus is on how we can beat Yale on Friday and Brown and Harvard after that."
The Big Green is still very much in the hunt for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament at the end of the season, but it will require a few more late-season victories.
The Big Green women will face the Bulldogs at home this Friday at 3 p.m. before traveling to Providence, R.I., to take on Brown on Sunday at noon.
