Wang, who had tweaked her quadriceps earlier in the week, aggravated the injury sprinting to fetch a deep lob in her doubles match and was advised by the trainers to retire for the day. Though she toughed out the rest of her 8-4 loss with Martire, she withdrew from singles, again leaving Harvard with a downgraded lineup.
“Mentally I felt everyone was OK but as far as taking someone out of the lineup so suddenly, that’s just a huge deal in itself,” Bergman said. “That was really rough for everyone behind Eva to have to come up like that. Cindy [Chu] had to just come in. Everyone is supposed to be ready, but nonetheless.”
Despite the sudden shake-up, the Crimson rebounded from losing the doubles point courtesy of wins from Bergman and sophomore Melissa Anderson at Nos. 1 and 5. Freshman Cindy Chu split her first two sets after sliding in at No. 6 and staked out a 4-3 lead in the third frame while both Martire and freshman Preethi Mukundan battled through their respective final sets.
But just when it appeared Harvard would sneak past its injury woes, the floor gave way in a matter of minutes. Chu lost three straight games to drop her match, Martire was closed out and Mukundan was swept out of the match, giving Ohio State the first road victory at Beren Tennis Center in more than two years.
“It sucked,” Wang said. “It’s just disappointing for the fans, too. We hyped up the event, and then played like that.”
Despite their disappointment, Bergman and Lingman fared little better at the NCAA Individual Championships, with the former falling in the first round of singles play, the tandem in its opening doubles match. For Bergman, the loss echoed her disappointment with her performance all spring season.
“I’m not totally happy with how I’ve done this year, so it gives me a chance to do well in the biggest tournament of the year,” Bergman said prior to her trip to Athens, Ga. “I’ve had annoying nagging injuries, and in general, with my results over spring break I just didn’t get the results that I wanted.”
But the season was not without small victories, highlighted by Bergman’s performance at the top of the ladder.
With the squad still struggling to find its footing in the first tournament of the fall season, Bergman thrived at the Leary Invitational, rolling to a second-place finish after the last of her teammates was eliminated in the second round.
But even then, hints of the trouble waiting down the road subtly held the Crimson back.
“Most people are coming out of injury,” Anderson said. “We had a pretty long tough season last spring because of how far we went in NCAAs, so over the summer lots of people were trying to recuperate.”
With no seniors, the Crimson returns its entire lineup next season and will likely add freshman Elsa O’Riain, a member of the Irish Fed Cup team, whose brief professional career cost her at least one year of eligibility.
“We might have the best team in Harvard history next year,” Wang said.
If only they can stay healthy.
—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.