Women's Tennis Team Upsets Harvard In Season Finale
May 2, 1999 | Women's Tennis
B.U.'s women's tennis team shocked Harvard, 5-1, at the Case Center courts on Saturday as the Terriers closed out their regular season on a seven-game winning streak. What is left now is for the team to wait until Wednesday when it learns who, when, and where it will play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
"I can't begin to tell you how big a win this was for our team and our program," head coach Lesley Sheehan said after the win over the Crimson.
"Harvard had won the Ivy League title and were undefeated. I think they may have been ranked among the nation's top 50 teams."
The Terriers showed little regard for their visitors from across The Charles River.
Selin Nassi (Miami, FL), who returned to action after missing the last match against UMass/Amherst with the flu, began things rolling by winning her number one singles match, 6-2, 6-2.
Jennifer Momii (Torrance, CA), playing at number two, went to three hard-fought sets but lost, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, for the team's only setback of the match.
The Terriers then went on to sweep the next four singles matches to wrap up the victory and eliminate any need for doubles play.
Christina Causway (Wilson, NC) won at number three, 6-1, 6-2; Carrie Rose (Bloomfield Hill, MI) took her match at number four, 7-5, 6-4; Karen Shostakovsky (Atlanta, GA) followed at number five, 7-5, 6-3; and Chrissy Cerretani (Reading, MA) concluded the festivities at number six, 6-0, 6-2.
It has been an incredible couple of weeks for the Terriers, who have a 9-7 record this spring.
On April 18th the Terriers hosted Syracuse, not realizing what laid ahead of them. At the time, B.U. was 3-7, having lost its last six matches. No one dared talk about post-season play, and May 1st was to be the final match of the year.
But, the Terriers soundly defeated Syracuse, 5-1, and then followed that up a couple of days later with an identical 5-1 victory over Providence.
On the strength of this modest two-match winning streak, the Terriers traveled to the University of Vermont in quest of their fifth straight America East title.
B.U. never lost match, as it disposed of Hartford, Towson, and Delaware by identical 9-0 scores.
Sheehan was named the conference's coach of the year, Nassi was named the outstanding performer, and the Terriers earned the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. It marked the first time in the program's history at B.U. that the team will be playing in the NCAA's.
But, the season was not over for the Terriers, who still had two more regular-season matches.
Would the euphoria of winning the America East title and the subsequent bid to the NCAA's leave them flat as they prepared to play UMass/Amherst and Harvard?
Absolutely not.
They rolled past UMass/Amherst, 7-2, and then dominated Harvard, 5-1.
Next comes the NCAAs.
