Musco Sports Photos

This weekend, Yale’s women’s tennis team hosted the Bulldog Invitational at Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center. They welcomed Rutgers on Friday, followed by Boston University on Saturday and Brown on Sunday.

First-year student Ann Wright Guerry ’26 boasted notable performances in both singles and doubles, defeating Rutgers’ Amira Badawi (6–3, 6–2), BU’s Erica Di Battista (6–1, 6–2) and suffering a tight third set loss to Brown’s Ali Benedetto (5–7, 6–3, 10–8).

“I really enjoyed having the team competing again! Our last day, we had two solid doubles wins against Brown,” Head Coach Rachel Kahan wrote to the News. “We are excited for the opportunity to compete at regionals this next weekend.”

On Friday, Chelsea Kung ’23 led the team in singles, followed by Guerry, Rebecca Lynn ’26, Sophia Zaslow ’26, Sasha Wood ’24, Vivian Cheng ’23, Rhea Shrivastava ’23 and Jamie Kim ’25. Cheng and Kung played the first line of doubles, ahead of Shrivastava with Wood and Guerry with Zaslow.

Kung bested Rutgers’ Arina Valitova in a (6–0, 6–0) victory, joining Guerry and Cheng as straight-set winners. On Saturday, Kung once again posted a straight-set victory, this time against Boston’s Michelle Kleynerman (6–3, 6–3).

“My favorite match of the weekend was our match against Rutgers on Friday because it was very windy and cold,” Guerry said. “I think our team was able to withstand these conditions very well.”

Guerry also highlighted how the team quickly figured out how to work hard together despite this weekend being their first competition as a unit. 

Against the Terriers, Kung also played the first line of singles, ahead of Guerry, Zaslow, Lynn, Cheng and Wood. Kung and Cheng once again led the team in doubles, this time followed by Zaslow with Guerry and Kim with Lynn.

Against Brown, the first-year duo of Zaslow and Guerry headed the team in doubles, followed by Wood with Shrivastava. Guerry led the team in singles, ahead of Zaslow, Cheng, Wood and Shrivastava.

Shrivastava triumphed in a third set victory against Brown’s Lindsey Hofflander (6–1, 3–6, 11–9). However, her favorite match of the weekend was watching Zaslow’s match against BU. 

“To see one of our first-years compete so hard and have such a great attitude after a really tough match was wonderful and made us all really excited about what’s to come for the team,” Shrivastava said.

Shrivastava and Wood fought hard against the Bears, coming back from being down early in the match to get their first win as a doubles team, notably one against an Ivy opponent.

The Bulldogs will next take on the Bears in Providence at the Brown Invitational the weekend of Oct. 21. Their next Ivy League competition will be against Dartmouth the weekend of Nov. 4.

The Bulldogs hold a four-match winning streak against Rutgers, having never lost a match to the Scarlet Knights since their first matchup in 2012.

“My personal highlight was winning the super tiebreak in my first college singles match,” said New Jersey native Zaslow on her match against Rutgers. “The energy of college tennis and competing for Yale is so exciting. I seriously had so much fun.”

Zaslow shared that ahead of her next competition she plans to target developing the first four balls of points. She looks forward to traveling to Dartmouth this weekend for the ITA Northeast Regional tournament.

This weekend, members of the women’s team will compete at the ITA Northeast Regional tournament in New Hampshire. Theo Dean ’24 and Michael Sun ’23 of the men’s team will travel to Tulsa this weekend for the ITA All-American Championships.

Grayson Lambert | Grayson.lambert@yale.edu