The women’s tennis team enjoyed a triumphant finish to its fall season, going 19-3 in singles and 6-3 in doubles at the Big Green Invite this past weekend. In its fall season, Dartmouth competed in the Tribe Invitational, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-America Championship, Bulldog Invitational and the ITA Northeast Regional Championship in preparation for the winter and primary Ivy League spring season.
“Our team has improved a lot since the beginning of the fall season,” co-captain Katherine Yau ’16 said. “Tennis is about getting in a good rhythm and keeping up with the momentum during match play. By playing a lot of matches we get to practice things we cannot practice in normal practices, so our results this weekend show that we have been able to improve from how we played earlier in the fall term.”
At the Big Green Invite this past weekend, Dartmouth played in a round robin, team format that included singles and doubles matches between the teams. Dartmouth competed against the University of Minnesota, University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of Denver over three days of competition.
On the first day of the tournament, the Big Green cruised against Minnesota, going 6-1 in singles and 2-1 in doubles. In singles, the teams split the results of the two three-set matches. After dropping her first set 6-3, Julia Schroeder ’18 was able to fight back and win the next two 6-2, 6-3 to win the match.
Allison Chuang ’19 had the closest match of the day, but was not able to walk away with the win. Chuang edged Minnesota senior Paula Rincon-Otero in the first set 7-5, but dropped the next set by the same scoreline. With the match split at one set apiece, nothing could separate the pair, and they headed to a tiebreaker in the deciding set. Rincon-Otero came out strong in the tiebreaker, winning it 7-3 to hand Chuang a difficult 7-5, 5-7, 7-6(3) loss, Dartmouth’s only singles defeat of the day.
After its strong start against Minnesota, Dartmouth continued its form on day two, recording a 7-0 singles and 4-2 doubles record against Denver and UMass. The Big Green began the day against Denver and dropped two out of three doubles matches, but rebounded with a 7-0 singles sweep over the Pioneers, losing just one set. To finish the day, Dartmouth battled blanked UMass in three doubles matches and one singles match.
“We’ve really improved our doubles technique,” Suzy Tan ’16 said. “As a team, we’ve been working on being more aggressive in the right places and finishing points when we have the opportunity.”
In the final day of the Invite and of the team’s fall competition, the Big Green went 5-2 in singles and 3-0 in doubles against UMass. Six out of seven singles matches went to a deciding final set, and Dartmouth managed to win five of the three-setters.
“It is really about team cohesion, being physically healthy and how the team can compete and fight during the crucial moments,” Yau said. “Our winter season and spring break trip will further sharpen our match play and mental skills.”
At the conclusion of the Big Green Invite, Schroeder, Taylor Ng ’17, Yau and Kristina Mathis ’18 were chosen to the All-Tournament team as Dartmouth players occupied four out of the five available slots on the team. While the end of the fall season has come for the majority of the team, Ng and Mathis will compete at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center in New York from Nov. 12 to 15.
“They were selected to the team because they performed really well in all of their singles matches,” Tan said. “It really shows their hard work and effort through the time they’ve been here.”
Dartmouth will continue to work and prepare for conference play in the spring.
“We have positioned ourselves to be one of the favorites in the Ivy League,” head coach Bob Dallis said. “The Ivy League is one of the strongest leagues in the country. The key is our continued improvement.”
