Tennis fights for Seven Sisters Championship

Danny Fahey Staff Writer

As the hot sun meandered across the sky on a brilliant Sunday afternoon, the Vassar women’s tennis team took part in the Seven Sisters Tournament held at Vassar College on April 1 and April 2.

After two days of competition against their Seven Sisters rivals, the Brewers finished in second place by a slight margin to the Wellesley College Blue. The finish, however, barely demonstrates the effort and achievement of the women’s tennis team in both the Seven Sisters tournament and the season as a whole.

In the 2005-2006 season, the Vassar women’s tennis team has been almost untouchable. As of April 2, the team has a record of 15-2, losing only to Williams and Wellesley.

“This season has been wonderful for the team so far,” said co-captain Debbie Sharnak ’07, the first singles player on the Vassar team. “We went 5-0 on the spring break trip and beat some great nationally ranked teams, including Albion who we beat in a 5-4 thriller after having lost to them last year.”

The team’s success on the court is nothing new. Women’s tennis is one of the most successful sports at Vassar, with a 56-10 record from 2002 to 2005. Vassar has qualified for the Division III National tournament in four of the last five years. The team has also won the Liberty League Championship (previously called the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association) and the New York State Championship for the past three consecutive years.

“There is a tradition of tennis excellence in the program,” said Coach Kathy Campbell, who has held the position since the late 1970s. “There is a team mentality that embraces a hard work ethic, positive team environment and a strong dedication to the sport and to the team as well as strong academics.”

This dedication has carried over to the Seven Sisters tournament. The women’s tennis program won Seven Sisters titles in 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2004. Since 1986, when Barnard dropped out of the tournament to become a Division I program, Vassar has won eight times and finished second seven times.

This year’s tournament came down to Wellesley and Vassar. This was unsurprising, since only Vassar and Wellesley have held the top two spots in the tournament since 2001. Going into the final match of the tournament both Wellesley and Vassar were undefeated, having dispatched of the other three participating schools, Smith, Bryn Mawr, and Mount Holyoke, in decisive fashion.

There are five “flights” or individual ranking positions in the Seven Sisters Tournament. Sharnak, Kathryn Robinette ’06, and Kelly Barnett ’08 held the first, second, and third spots for singles players, respectively, while first and second doubles positions were held by pairs Krista Romita ’09 and Elysa Kliman ’08, and Courtney Burks ’08 and Anna Will ’07.

Along with entering the final match against Wellesley, the Brewers had not lost a match, let alone a set, going 15-0 against the three earlier opponents. Wellesley had only lost one match (14-1) before meeting Vassar. The tournament winner was decided by total wins (or points), with the tie-breaker being the head-to-head result. As a result, whoever won three of the five matches between Vassar and Wellesley would win the championship.

The first four matches began with face-offs between the first five ranked players from Vassar and Wellesley. Robinette fought against the Blue’s Hali Walther, but came up short and lost 6-2, 6-2. Barnett battled to a tight 7-5 victory in her first set before managing a 6-3 win in the second set, to clinch the match for the Brewers.

Vassar split its two doubles matches with Burks and Will winning their match in decisive fashion 6-0, 6-3. Going into Sharnak’s first singles match, Vassar and Wellesley were tied 2-2. The tournament winner would be crowned by whoever won the match. Sharnak met Wellesley’s Jenna Mezin ’08, the Individual Singles Flight Champion from the 2005 Seven Sisters Tournament.

The match proved to be an impressive battle between two nationally ranked singles players. Sharnak took the first set 6-4, but Mezin countered with a 6-4 victory of her own in the second set. The tension surrounding the match grew as the other matches finished up and players surrounded the court. Each player seemed to be fighting both her opponent as well as the exhaustion that comes from such a long match. Mezin managed to gain the upper hand forcing Sharnak to move back and forth on the baseline constantly in much of the third set, but Sharnak refused to fold. In one long point, she managed to get to multiple balls that seemed impossibly out of her reach, flipping them back over the net. In the end, Mezin pulled out the third set 6-4, winning the tournament for Wesleyan.

However, Sharnak, Barnett, and Burks/Will still won individual flight championships for the Brewers. Vassar’s team effort proved integral to success in the long and intense tournament.

“I am so proud of how our team did at this tournament,” said Sharnak. “Everyone played with so much heart and effort this weekend. It was a lot of tennis, but we left everything we had out there, so we can't walk away upset.”

The tournament was also a manifestation of Division III women’s tennis at its most intense and exciting.

“It was the most exciting finish I can remember in the Seven Sisters Championship,” said Campbell.