After suffering two tough losses at William and Mary and Virginia Commonwealth University, Harvard women's tennis coasted over Richmond, 7-2, in their first home match of the spring season at Palmer-Dixton Courts.

"This was a pretty tough match. We had a lot of close matches and a few tiebreakers," said sophomore Sanaz Ghazal. "The match could have easily gone either way, but we showed a lot of guts and toughed it out."

Harvard is without its only senior player, captain Ivy Wang. Wang has been injured since the fall season, and is not expected to return this year.

In response, the Crimson has had to step it up a notch, relying on its depth to make up for the loss of Wang and its lack of upperclassmen.

In the No. 1 slot, Ghazal went up against Richmond's top player, Janelle Williams. Unfortunately, Ghazal was unable to score for the Crimson, falling to Williams in two close sets, 6-4, 6-3.

Junior Vedica Jain, the oldest active player on the Crimson, defeated Richmond's Elizabeth Cascarella in two tight sets, 7-6, 7-6, notching the first winning match for Harvard.

Freshmen Andrea Magyera and Fleur Broughton defeated both their opponents in three sets, both of which were pushed into tiebreakers.

Broughton, in perhaps the most exciting match of the day, battled back from a deficit of six match points to win 7-6 in the tiebreaker.

In the No. 5 spot, freshman Jennie Timoney defeated Richmond's Lindsay Woodworth in three sets. Quickly following suit, sophomore Roxanne Curto defeated Wesley Kohl easily in two sets.