Of special concern was the venue for the matchups.

The playing conditions clearly affected the Harvard players, who were unaccustomed to playing at the William J. Flynn Recreational Center.

“I thought I played well, considering I was playing in a whole new place,” sophomore Eva Wang said. “The courts were really fast and parts of the ceiling were really low, like a dome.”

Such sentiments are shared by Mukundan.

“We were playing under some diverse conditions,” Mukundan said. “The courts were not in the best condition, and [because there were not enough courts] we had players who were waiting to play, so we were not on the courts all at the same time.”

Harvard fought hard early on, but lost two of the three matches to concede the doubles point.

Singles play was just as intense.

At No 1. singles, Lingman battled back from a first set 7-5 loss to reach a second set tiebreak, before falling to her opponent, Szilvia Szegedi, 7-5, 7-6 (2).

Sophomore Lyly Cao Minh showed similar resiliency, forcing a second set tiebreak after losing the first set 6-0. Mukundan and fellow freshman Cindy Chu took their opponents to the limit, losing in three sets, 6-4, 6-7 (9), 7-6 (4) and 3-6, 7-5, 6-1, respectively.

Wang and Melissa Anderson secured Harvard’s two points with singles victories.

“We barely lost the doubles point, and all of the matches were very close,” Mukundan said. “I guess it was just one of those days.”

The Crimson was also playing shorthanded, not having its best player and co-captain Courtney Bergman available for action. Junior Alexis Martire has also seen limited action due to recent injuries.

After splitting the two games, Harvard will embark on a west coast trip to face three top-ranked teams—No. 14 Fresno State, No. 36 Arizona State and No. 31 Pepperdine—over spring break. The team is optimistic that they will be able to put the tough loss to Boston College behind them.

“[The loss] is going to affect our rankings, but it is not going to hinder our reaching our goals,” Wang said. “It just makes us more eager to go on this trip and try to get back our standings.”