CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — After defeating Harvard just once in the first 37 meetings between the two programs, the women's tennis team defeated the Crimson for a second time in a one-year span on Sunday. Sophomore
Lizzie Stewart secured the clinching point with a win at No. 5 singles in the Big Red's 4-3 victory in a non-league match at Beren Tennis Center.
The teams would later split the six singles matches, which made Cornell's procurement of the doubles point key. All three matches were decided by 6-4 margins, with the Big Red's No. 1 pairing of junior
Alexandra D'Ascenzo and senior
Dena Tanenbaum, and No. 3 tandem of junior
Marika Cusick and senior
Jane Stewart victorious.
Cornell (2-0) stretched its lead to 3-0 after matching 6-3, 6-3 victories from Cusick and Tanenbaum at the top two singles positions. The next three matches then finished in quick succession, including
Lizzie Stewart's 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 5. She broke serve with the second set at 5-all, then served out for the victory to lock down the Big Red's fourth point.
The Big Red returns to its home state for another non-league match at 11 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 31 at Syracuse.
CORNELL 4, HARVARD 3Doubles1.
Alexandra D'Ascenzo/
Dena Tanenbaum (C) def. June Lee/Erica Oosterhout, 6-4
2. #52 Amanda Lin/Annika Ringblom (H) def.
Lizzie Stewart/
Priyanka Shah, 6-4
3.
Marika Cusick/
Jane Stewart (C) def. Nikki Kallenberg/Sabrina Xiong, 6-4
Singles1. #74
Marika Cusick (C) def. June Lee, 6-3, 6-3
2.
Dena Tanenbaum (C) def. Annika Ringblom, 6-3, 6-3
3. #125 Nikki Kallenberg (H) def.
Alexandra D'Ascenzo, 0-6, 6-2, 7-6(4)
4. Erica Oosterhout (H) def.
Jane Stewart, 7-5, 6-2
5.
Lizzie Stewart (C) def. Amy He, 6-3, 7-5
6. Sabrina Xiong (H) def.
Priyanka Shah, 6-4, 6-3
Order of finish: Doubles(1,2,3); Singles(1,2,6,5,4,3)
Records: Cornell 2-0, Harvard 0-1