Shattering a three-game losing streak, the Harvard women's tennis

team served up a 6-3 win over Boston College yesterday afternoon in its

first match since spring break.

After falling to No. 2 Pepperdine, No. 7 Southern California, and unranked San Diego last week, the Crimson regained some confidence by defeating the Eagles at Boston College. The victory is Harvard's second away win since the beginning of the second half of the season, and boosts the Crimson's road record to 4-8 on the year.

"It was an important game," sophomore Fleur Broughton said. "Everyone played some tough tennis today."

Despite a late surge by B.C. during the doubles matches, the Crimson held on to win the match, improving their record to 6-9. The Eagles drop to 4-7 with the loss.

With sophomore Andrea Magyera still sidelined by an injury, and freshman Sanja Bajin unavailable to play singles yesterday, Harvard was still able to turn in an impressive singles performance. The second through sixth players defeated their opponents, with only two of the matches pushed to three sets.

"This is definitely a good start going into this weekend," junior Sanaz Ghazal said. "It was a good challenge because we were missing two good players, but everyone stepped up to fill in the gaps."

Starting for Bajin in the top slot, Ghazal dropped No. 1 singles to B.C.'s Cindy Tow. Ghazal came close in the first set, losing in a close 6-4 match. Tow, who notched 38 singles victories last season and won the individual championship at the Harvard Invitational last year, sealed the win with a 6-1 second set.

The Crimson answered the early challenge by silencing the Eagles in the next five singles matches, and never relinquished its lead.

Captain Vedica Jain avenged Ghazal in the second seed, defeating Kiren Fernando in straight sets. Jain took the first set easily 6-2, and blanked Fernando 6-0 in the second.

Sophomore Jennie Timoney quickly followed suit, emerging victorious over Barbara Privrel 7-5 and 6-4, also in straight sets.

Once again, Broughton provided one of the most exciting matches of the day, taking her opponent to three sets before securing the win in the fourth seed. Broughton dug out a 7-6 victory in the first set, but stumbled in the second, losing to Eagles' co-Captain Mercedes del Valle 5-7. She regained her momentum in the final set, soundly defeating del Valle 6-2.

"I've been playing inconsistently lately, but I had a solid match today," Broughton said. "I've played [del Valle] several times, and they're close matches. But it was good to come out on top."

Harvard continued to dominate, as freshman Lara Naqushbandi handily defeated Eagles' co-Captain Kim Arbuckle in the No. 5 spot. Naqushbandi left Arbuckle scoreless in the first set, triumphing 6-0, and sealed the victory 6-2 in the second.