Women's tennis prevails over Yale and William & Mary

By Catherine Levins     4/1/14 4:56pm

This past weekend, the Rice University women’s tennis team traveled to Williamsburg, Va. to compete against the College of William and Mary and Yale University. Due to inclement weather, all the matches were held indoors, but that did not stop the Owls from winning the tournament.

Rice’s first doubles match against William and Mary was a shutout victory (6-0) against an injured Tribe team, which only had five players present. Rice senior Kimberly Anicete clinched her 93rd career win, placing her 5th in the most career wins in Rice history.

On their second day of play, the Owls competed against Yale, whom they swept in doubles, 8-5, 8-6, 6-3.

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Head Coach Elizabeth Schmidt said the doubles were a critical factor in the team’s success.

“Doubles was pretty key today,” Schmidt said. “It was the best doubles point we have played all season and is what I know we are capable of doing day in and day out.”

Yale came back with three singles wins, but a victory by freshman Alison Ho brought back the momentum for the Owls.

Freshman Katherine Ip and senior Dominique Harmath’s wins in their individual matches helped secure Rice’s victory. Ip’s victory was her seventh consecutive singles victory, and Harmath became the seventh Owl to achieve 90 career wins after her ninth consecutive singles’ victory.

Despite struggling against No. 52 Yale, Schmidt said the girls fought hard for the win.

“That was a very good Yale team that we beat today,” Schmidt said. “We had to battle extremely hard in order to win this one, and as a team, we really did that. We fought back from some deficits in singles to keep us in the match, and we are proud of the team for this effort.”

Rice will be back in action against No. 25 DePaul University at Rice’s Jake Hess Tennis Stadium on Saturday, April 5 at 11 a.m.

 

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