Bulldogs Claim Doubles Point

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's tennis team came up short in its first Ivy League home match of the season on Saturday.  Playing on their familiar turf, the Bulldogs secured the doubles point but then succumbed to a thorough singles display from their opponent, No. 46 Columbia, to fall in a 6-1 decision.

Despite Columbia's impressive record as of late, the Bulldogs knew they could muster the form to topple the Lions.  At No. 1 doubles, the Yale duo of junior Madeleine Hamilton and classmate Ree Ree Li scored a momentum-building 8-3 upset win over the No. 78 team of Tina Jiang and Crystal Leung.  Columbia equalized with a victory at No. 4 doubles, but freshman Carol Finke and sophomore Sherry Li, playing at the No. 3 spot, once again proved central to Yale's doubles success, as they notched a decisive 8-5 win over Adi Milstein and Alexandra Solovyev to give the Bulldogs the early advantage.

Columbia quickly shook off any disappointment from doubles and regrouped in singles play.  The Lions posted their first point when Alexandra Solovyev came back to defeat Sherry Li at No. 5 singles, 1-6, 6-0, 6-3.  Jiang then put Columbia in the lead with a straight-set win over Hamilton at No. 2 singles.  The turning point in the match came when Ree Ree Li was unable to complete a valiant comeback attempt against her opponent at the No. 3 spot, falling 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.  Instead of the score tied at two points apiece, Columbia was in the lead 3-1 and only needed one more victory to secure its third Ivy League win of the season.  Milstein clinched at No. 6 singles by overcoming Shklover in two close sets, 6-4, 6-4.

Full results from Saturday's match against Columbia can be found below.

Yale drops to 1-2 in Ivy League play but the team will have the chance to rebound right away when it returns to its home courts on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. to take on Cornell.

Report by Robert Batista '15, Yale Sports Publicity

Doubles

Madeleine Hamilton/Ree Ree Li (Yale) def. No. 78 Tina Jiang/Crystal Leung (Columbia), 8-3

Rima Asatrian/Kanika Vaidya (Columbia) def. Valerie Shklover/Hanna Yu (Yale), 8-4

Carol Finke/Sherry Li (Yale) def. Adi Milstein/Alexandra Solovyev (Columbia), 8-5

Singles

Vaidya (Columbia) def. Yu (Yale), 7-5, 4-6, 1-0(3)

Jiang (Columbia) def. Hamilton (Yale), 6-3, 7-6(2)

Asatrian (Columbia) def. Ree Ree Li (Yale), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3

Leung (Columbia) def. Courtney Amos (Yale), 2-6, 6-4, 6-1

Solovyev (Columbia) def. Sherry Li (Yale), 1-6, 6-0, 6-3

Milstein (Columbia) def. Shklover (Yale), 6-4, 6-4