The women’s tennis team dominated this weekend with two victories against Cornell and Columbia, extending its home winning streak to 19 victories.
On Friday, Vicki Brook ’12 and Lindsay Clark ’11, as well as Janet Kim ’09 and Jessie Rhee ’10, took their doubles matches, giving the Bulldogs the doubles point for the day.
The Elis proceeded to take all their singles matches, dropping not a single one to Cornell.
“It was a good weekend for our confidence,” Brook said. “We went in knowing that we were the strongest team, but it was still a job that needed to be done.”
The Bulldogs continued their success on Saturday when they faced off against Columbia, also at home.
Even coming off a win the day before, the Elis proved there is always room for improvement. Against the Lions, Yale took three of three doubles matches and six of six singles matches.
“I thought that we played really well,” head coach Danielle McNamara said. “They needed to stay really focused, which they did a good job of. There were a lot of potential distractions but they handled it well and took care of business, so it was overall a really good weekend.”
This weekend, the women had a great turnout of fans, friends and family.
“The crowd was really great this weekend,” Brook said. “We had quite a few people out. We had more vocality for our team and it was really fun to be out there playing this weekend and have everyone behind us.”
The Bulldogs will face Dartmouth at home Friday and head to Cambridge, Mass., on Sunday to play Harvard in the final weekend of the Ivy League season.
McNamara said she and the women have much to look forward to next weekend. The Bulldogs beat both teams last year in their undefeated Ivy season, but, according to team members, Dartmouth’s team is not to be taken lightly.
“The Big Green is always the team to beat,” Brook said. “They always come out wearing their game faces. We’re looking forward to Friday especially since it’s at home and it’ll be a really great time for us.”
But the women have decided not to over-think their matches this upcoming weekend.
“We’re taking this one match at a time,” McNamara said. “We haven’t talked about Harvard at all because we’re going to take that after Friday. We’re staying focused
and taking care of the things we can control.”
In trying to minimize forced errors and not lose any points, the Elis will rely on the weapons they have been developing over the course of the season.
“Our expectation is to win both matches and to play the way we’ve been playing in practice and games,” Sarah Lederhandler ’10 said. “We’re going to stay aggressive.”