Junior Camille Jania, shown here in previous action, won all four of her contests over the weekend, helping the Harvard women’s tennis team earn a pair of 5-2 victories. Playing at the No. 2 spot, Jania’s straight-set victory over Furman’s Michelle Stanford, 6-3, 7-5, clinched the Crimson’s perfect weekend.
Since its victory on Jan. 29 against the University of Massachusetts to open the spring season, the No. 67 Harvard women’s tennis team had struggled to pull out a win.
But after three close losses in a row, the Crimson (3-3) won both of its matches at the Murr Center this weekend against Boston University and Furman.
“We just took our frustration [from losing] and turned it into energy, and we really took it out on the court,” junior co-captain Kristin Norton said. “We’ve been practicing really hard for these two matches, so we were really proud of ourselves and how we played. “
Harvard won the doubles point in both contests before taking four of the six singles matches en route to a pair of 5-2 victories.
“Every match to us, I believe, is a learning experience and a test to our training that we commit ourselves to every single week,” said junior Camille Jania, who won all four of her matches on the weekend. “We build up all these different tools and skills and endurance as we train, and we want to prove to ourselves just how good we are by playing these matches and using these tools that we’ve developed.”
HARVARD 5, FURMAN 2
The Crimson finished its second match of the weekend on Saturday on top of the Paladins (3-6), 5-2.
Jania and senior Samantha Gridley grabbed the first win of the day for Harvard, 8-3, at the No. 3 doubles position.
After the 23rd-ranked doubles duo of Norton and junior co-captain Hideko Tachibana dropped their contest, 8-4, at the No. 1 spot, the doubles point came down to the pair of sophomore Hannah Morrill and freshman Kelly Whelan.
Morrill and Whelan came through, combining for an 8-4 victory over Michele Stanford and Margaret Boyette of Furman.
In singles play, Tachibana and Norton gave the Crimson a three-point lead after quickly topping their opponents, 6-1, 6-2, and 6-0, 6-2, respectively.
The Paladins countered with wins at the No. 4 and No. 5 spots. Boyette defeated Gridley, 6-3, 7-5, while Alex Moreno-Kaste handled freshman Kelly Whelan, 6-4, 6-4.
But at the No. 2 spot, Jania beat her foe, 6-3, 7-5, to clinch the Crimson victory.
“It was a fight in the second set,” Jania said. “But I just kept on doing what I train every single day.”
Morill topped off the day at the No. 6 spot with a close, 7-5, 6-3, victory over Furman’s Susan Bitetti.
Read more in Sports
Harvard Grabs Trio Of Weekend Victories
