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Seven Sisters Championship, April 5-6, 2003 |
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Hosted by Wellesley College |
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Article written by Maija Welton and Nora Testerman, members of the Smith College Tennis Team |
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Smith College Tennis team rolled onto the snow-covered Wellesley campus
Friday afternoon, prepared for the 2003 Seven Sisters Tennis Championship.
After an abbreviated practice to get used to the surface in the indoor
facility (“home” for the next two days), the team dressed up for the
traditional banquet, where teams are introduced to one another and seniors
are honored by their fellow teammates. Smith showed its classy side
with creative introductions and spent the evening preparing for two tough
days of competition.
The round-robin tournament began promptly at 9am on Saturday morning with Smith taking on Vassar, a solid team with lots of experience. Vassar was surprised by Smith’s aggressive nature and competitive desire. Although Vassar won the match 4-1, many matches could have gone either way with Smith players fighting for every point. Saturday afternoon saw Smith’s strong performance over Mount Holyoke with a 4-1 victory, which kept spirits high. On Sunday morning, Smith took on Wellesley, the 2002 defending champions, with determination but succumbed with a score of 1-4. The last match was against Bryn Mawr and Smith stayed focused to pull out a 5-0 win. The final match of the day took place between Wellesley and Vassar, as both teams battled it out for the championship. Vassar prevailed in the end, after a grueling 3-set match between the #1 singles players: Diya Uberoi (V) and Kirsi Hakkinen (W). Vassar came out on top with 16 points; Wellesley was runner-up with 14 points; Smith followed with 11; then Mount Holyoke with 7 and Bryn Mawr with 0. With a third place finish to be proud of, Smith’s line-up of three singles and two doubles teams consisted of prepared and gracious players ready to take on the competition. Playing for Smith’s #1 singles position, fiery-spirited Lauren Kemp kept a cool dominance over her tough opponents, collecting wins over Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr with her sweeping groundstrokes and solid net play. She confidently set up points and moved her opponents with ease. Her matches against Vassar and Wellesley tested her patience and mental toughness as both opponents were victorious in the end, but she had a great showing overall. #2 singles player Cami Whitney impressively kept her opponents at bay with her ability to get everything back. She was in every point and played some long and gritty matches, taking away three wins and only losing one close match to Wellesley’s Meredith Friedman, who ended up being the flight champion. Cami’s determination and strong rallies prove that she is a fierce competitor who just does not give up. Even after her marathon match against Wellesley, she bounced right back to finish out her last competition against Bryn Mawr. Katy Walker stepped up to play Smith’s #3 position. She used
her formidable forehand to blast balls past her opponents and stayed
mentally tough in order to pull out some impressive comebacks. She
utilized strategies to keep her opponents guessing and fought through some
injuries to her body and her racquet (finishing up her matches with a
borrowed racquet after breaking a string). In the end, Katy battled
it out against strong Vassar and Wellesley opponents and came up with
victories against Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr. Ashley Kilgore and Liz Laudeman were paired
together for our number one doubles team.
Ashley’s aggressive shots and Liz’s finesse were apparent in
all of their matches. (we’re
not sure of the scores for these matches) Smith will be back in action at home on April 12 vs Bowdoin and Trinity. Matches begin at 9am.
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