Feb. 27, 2010
The Purdue women's tennis team continued the best start in program history and ran their season-opening winning streak to nine by defeating 53rd-ranked Harvard 5-2 Saturday afternoon on the Basham Courts inside the Schwartz Tennis Center.
"I'm very proud of the team," head coach Laura Glitz said. "They have been working extremely hard, and it is great to see all of their hard work paying off in these close matches."
Purdue (9-0) gained an early advantage by winning the doubles point for the eighth time this season. Junior Bhavani Tirumurti and freshman Imogen Golder defeated Kristin Norton and Caroline Davis by an 8-3 margin at No. 3. Harvard (5-3) evened the point at No. 2, where Samantha Rosekrans and Alexandra Lehman earned an 8-6 win over sophomores Anna Dushkina and Remi Martin. Senior Michelle Sammons and sophomore Jennifer Rabot remained unbeaten this season and clinched the point with an 8-5 defeat of Holly Cao and Hideko Tachibana at No. 1.
As the match moved to singles, Purdue continued rolling. Rabot remained undefeated this season and took out her first nationally-ranked opponent when she defeated Tachibana, the 115th-ranked singles player in the NCAA, 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2. The Crimson picked up their first point at the top of the lineup as Cao, the NCAA's 57th-ranked singles player, earned a 6-3, 6-1 win over Sammons. Freshman Gisella Pere pushed the Boilermakers back into the lead with her 6-4, 6-4 win over Lehman at No. 6.
The final three matches all required three sets to determine a winner. Norton earned 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 win over Tirumurti at No. 3 to pull Harvard closer, but Dushkina clinched the match at No. 4 by defeating Rosekrans 6-3, 5-7, 6-1. Golder stretched the winning margin further by taking down Chang 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 at No. 5.
"I was really fired up coming back in the third set after dropping a close one in the second," Dushkina said. "I saw that most of the matches were close, so I wanted it even a little bit more. It was a very competitive and loud match today, and in the end we just worked a little bit harder and were able to get the win. It helps that we have good team chemistry when matches are close like today. We cheered each other on, and that really helped us to beat a good team. It was nice to have so many fans here being supportive. I think our performances this weekend showed we can compete with some great teams."
The Boilermakers picked up their first win over a ranked opponent since beating 70th-ranked Wisconsin on April 4, 2009. Harvard is the highest-ranked opponent Purdue has defeated since 29th-ranked Virginia on March 3, 2007. The Boilermakers now lead the all-time series with the Crimson 2-0.
Purdue returns to conference play with its next match. The Boilermakers, who are 1-0 in the Big Ten, host co-leader and second-ranked Northwestern on March 6 at noon ET.