For the tennis teams, this weekend was all about the ITA Northeast Regional Championships, the most competitive and arguably important individual event for Ivy League players. Yale University hosted the men and Harvard University hosted the women.
The men's team was one of only two teams in the tournament to see eight players compete in the main draw.
On Thursday, Diego Pedraza '17 and Erik Nordahl '16 clawed their way into the main draw by winning their two qualifying matches. Pedraza sailed through qualifications with two straight set wins, while Nordahl was forced to earn his right to play in his second qualification match, in which he found himself down two match points.
"I came up with some pretty big serves and followed them with big forehands when I was down match points, and when I got to my tie break I was able to step my game up and leave it all out there," Nordahl said.
The men continued their momentum on Friday, winning five singles matches and two doubles matches to go 7-1 on the day. Due to their rankings, Chris Kipouras '15 and Dovydas Sakinis '16 received first round byes, resulting in seven Big Green singles players moving into the second round, as opposed to zero in last year's tournament.
"We've really been working on our court presence and composure under pressure," Justin Chan '16 said. "Our concentration on those aspects of the game has really improved our ability to execute under pressure and close out matches against tough opponents."
Brandon DeBot '14, Sakinis and Kipouras all advanced to the third round. DeBot dropped two tight 6-5, 6-5 sets to Asika Isoh from the U.S. Military Academy, and Sakinis fell in three sets to Harvard's Andrew Ball 3-6, 6-5, 6-4. Kipouras made it through to the round of 16 by defeating Yale's Tyler Lu 6-4, 6-3.
The doubles teams of Kipouras and Pedraza and Sakinis and DeBot both fell in the third round with 8-6 losses, while Cameron Ghorbani '14 and Brendan Tannenbaum '16 continued their run. Ghorbani and Tannenbaum defeated a pairing from Fairfield University 8-7 and then took down the No. 2 seed from Harvard 8-5 to make it to the semifinals of doubles play.
On Sunday, Kipouras battled with No. 2 seed Dennis Nguyen of Harvard, but ultimately fell 6-5, 6-4. Tannenbaum and Ghorbani fell to a Columbia duo 8-2, ending the Big Green's run at regionals.
"If one were to ask Kip how he would describe his play this weekend, he would respond nasty,'" Nordahl said. "Kip displayed exceptional sportsmanship in many of his close matches, as he and his opponent would often give each other the benefit of the doubt when it came to line calls."
The Dartmouth women saw four players advance to the main draw, with Suzy Tan '16 and Julienne Keong Si Ying '16 falling in the qualifying rounds.
The women started the weekend off with exclusively doubles play on Friday, taking four out of five matches. Tan and Jacqueline Crawford '17 paired up for a routine first round win over a pair from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and built off that win with an upset of the No. 4 seeded pair from Princeton University.
Katherine Yau '16 and Ng, seeded seventh in doubles, started their day with a win over the University of Massachusetts 8-2, backing that win up with a huge tiebreaker triumph over Harvard 8-7 (4).
"At 6-all, we had a really long game on my serve, and we ended up dropping it which was devastating because the Harvard girl serving next had a massive serve," Yau said. "It's pretty hard to stay confident when you're down a break like that, but miraculously we fought away match points on her serve and took the match in the tiebreaker."
The women saw a loaded schedule on Sunday, with all three remaining players starting the day with two singles matches and capping it off with doubles. Ng posted an inspired day, taking down the No. 9 seed 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 and then the No. 5 seed 6-2, 7-5, after starting the second set of the match down 5-1.
Crawford joined Ng as a seed slayer, winning her first match of the day 6-1, 7-5 over her opponent from Cornell University and then dominating the No. 3 seed from Yale 6-3, 6-0. Yau also took her opening match but ultimately fell in a three-hour, three-set battle, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3. Yau and Ng ended the day with a win over a duo from Army while Tan and Crawford fell to a Yale pairing.
"In every single one of her matches, Jacqueline is focused on every point, and she doesn't really show her opponents any signs of weakness," Ng said. "In her second set against Yale, the Yale girls were trying to cheer really loud to pick their teammate up, but Jacqueline stayed focused and didn't even let the girl get a game."
Competing in the quarterfinals, Ng fell to nationally-ranked Columbia senior Bianca Sanon, 7-6, 6-1. Crawford battled her way to a quarterfinal win over No. 17 seed Monica Lin of Harvard 7-6, 6-4. Yau and Ng were forced to default their Monday doubles match due to an academic conflict.
On Tuesday, Crawford did her best to avenge her teammate in a semifinal square off against Sanon but ultimately fell 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.