This past weekend, the women’s tennis team (8–11 overall, 1–4 Ivy League) played their penultimate weekend of the Ivy League season. On Friday afternoon, the Tigers hosted the Cornell Big Red (11–7, 1–4) in a thrilling 4–3 victory for their first Ivy League win of the season. On Sunday, the Tigers traveled to the Big Apple and were defeated by the Columbia Lions (12–8, 3–2) 4–2. The loss against Columbia means the Tigers have officially posted a losing Ivy League record for the first time since 2003.
“[They were] two very electric matches,” women’s tennis Head Coach Elizabeth Begley told The Daily Princetonian. “We’re continuing to see improvement, especially in our freshmen.”
The Tigers have faced a tumultuous season during Begley’s first term as head coach, with senior and captain Leena Benneto missing the entire Ivy season due to injury. Despite winning the last five Ivy titles, Princeton has struggled on the road, losing all four of their conference away matches this season.
“I feel like I was expecting to get more wins, but this year we have a very young team, so it’s hard because we need to get used to this new team and grow and improve more,” sophomore Alice Ferlito wrote to the ‘Prince.’ “But it felt very good to get a win this weekend, especially being home.”
Prior to the Cornell match, the Tigers had not enjoyed home court advantage for their last six matches, with their last win also coming in their last home game against Temple on March 1. Excited to be back at the Meadows, the team sought to earn a much-needed breather in the middle of the season on Friday afternoon.
“It felt very nice to play at home for the first time this Ivy season, especially because we are used to the courts here, and they feel good,” Ferlito noted.
Although the Tigers lost the doubles point, with only junior Eva Elbaz and first-year Maren Urata winning line one, they fought back in the singles category. Urata herself earned the first point for Princeton when she dominated Cornell’s Jenny Wong in line five with a 2–0 sweep: 6–4 and 6–1. Elbaz then defeated Cornell’s Victoria Zhao in line three with a 2–0 score as well, with her first game going to deuce 7–6 and her second game being a dominant 6–2 win.
With the score tied at 2–2 following Urata and Elbaz’s wins, sophomore Tsehay Driscoll earned a crucial victory in line six with the Tigers’ third 2–0 win over Cornell’s Emma Baker. With her first game going to the extra point in a 7–5 win, she solidified the Princeton lead with a 6–3 win in her second game.
“I was just really focused on bringing the energy and trying to be the loudest teammate for my team,” Driscoll told the ‘Prince.’
But after the Tigers lost line 2 of the singles, the score was tied 3–3 with everything to play for in sophomore Alice Ferlito’s line 1 matchup.
“I was just taking it point by point. I was trying to zone out from what the score was, especially being match point down as well,” Ferlito reflected. “I was focusing simply on what I have to do every point, and my small goals of how to play the points.”
Ferlito opened with a narrow 6–5 win in game 1 against Cornell’s Michelle Ryndin, but Ryndin leveled with a tough win in the second game 7–5.
“She was able to battle and pull it out, which is just like one of those, like, storybook matches you kind of talk about for generations,” Begley said about Ferlito’s match. “We were like, that close to losing it, and then we were able to turn it around.”
Ferlito and Ryndin’s back-and-forth affair continued all the way to the end, but Ferlito ultimately came out on top in a narrow 7–5 win, giving the Tigers the last, winning point of the day, 4–3.
“Everyone really did their part to try and get us in the best possible position,” Begley said about the Cornell game. “And we just sort of got lucky in the end.”
After celebrating their first Ivy League win of the season, the Tigers hoped to carry that momentum into their Sunday travels to New York City. In a tough matchup against the No. 69 Columbia Lions, the Tigers earned a surprising point in the doubles category through first-year Pearlie Zhang and sophomore Bella Chhiv in line two, and Driscoll and Ferlito in line three.
“We won our first doubles point in a while,” Driscoll said to the ‘Prince.’ “I think we’re just stunned that we won the doubles point.”
“We finally broke one of Columbia’s serves and at that same time our teammates won the set, so we were just so excited. That was a key change in momentum for us and that’s what got us to win the doubles point,” Driscoll continued.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, they could not capitalize on their statement win in the doubles, getting a sole victory in the singles’ category through Chhiv in line two. With only two points on the board for the Orange and Black, Columbia’s four wins in lines one, three, five, and six secured their 4–2 win before line four game even finished.
However, the Tigers finish off the Ivy League season with two home games against the Yale Bulldogs and the Brown Bears, which the team is excited and hopeful for.
“We lost to Yale in the ECAC tournament, and we are definitely excited to play them again; we could do better this time,” Begley said to the ‘Prince.’ “It was a close match when we lost to them, so we’re excited to get a little bit of revenge.”
“We’re looking forward to this week, and we’ve been training real hard and really trying to emphasize touching up on close errors that can’t be missed,” Driscoll concluded.
Bryant Figueroa is an assistant Sports editor and a staff Audience creator for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com
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