Call them the dynamic duo.
Women's tennis' doubles team of junior captain Kerry Patterson and sophomore Blair Farr stunned the top three seeds to win the Princeton Indoor Tennis Invitational in Jadwin Gym this weekend.
The doubles victory highlighted an all-around solid showing for the Tigers in both singles and doubles action.
Princeton's home tournament was an early-season meeting of 13 top eastern schools that the Tigers used as a tuneup for their Ivy League season.
In addition to the weekend's individual competition, the Tigers (1-0) played well as a team Feb. 14, when they defeated Massachusetts, 9-0.
"It was good for everyone to get a win under their belts," senior Stephanie Alpert said of the UMass match. "We're really excited for the season."
Power play
In the Tigers' invite this weekend, Patterson and Farr beat the top-seeded Penn State team to take the title. The Nittany Lions fell to Princeton in a tight match by a score of 9-8. With the score tied after 16 games, the two teams went to a tiebreaker. The Tiger pair fought it out to emerge victorious.
The tandem advanced to yesterday's final with solid victories over third-seeded Dartmouth and No. 2 Penn. The hard-fought quarterfinal match with the Big Green ended with a 8-6 pro-set victory. In the semifinal, Farr and Patterson defeated the Quakers in a close 9-8 win.
"They were amazing," Alpert said. "They really put their hearts into it."
Against the odds
In singles play, unseeded sophomore Amanda Hastings-Phillips advanced to the semifinal round.
In the first three rounds, Hastings-Phillips overcame early troubles to top her opponents. After losing the first set of her opening match, 1-6, she fought back, 6-1 and 7-5, for the victory.
The second round pitted Hastings-Phillips against Sara Naisson Phillips, the No. 7 seed from Yale. Hastings-Phillips won the first set, 6-4, and pulled out a 7-6 tie-break win in the second.
In the quarterfinal match, Hastings-Phillips recovered from a first-set 6-7 loss to win a tough three-set match. She defeated the No. 4 seed, Harvard's Vedica Jain, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3.
Penn's Anastasia Pozdiakova, the No. 2 seed, outmatched Hastings-Phillips in the semifinal with a 6-1, 6-2 win.
Junior Olivia Streatfield pulled out a three-set match over Penn State's Pilar Montgomery, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, in the first round only to fall in her next match. The No. 1 seed, Ivy Wang from Harvard, dealt Streatfield a 6-3, 6-2, defeat.
The team begins the spring season with a spring-break road trip out west. It will face Oregon and San Diego State, and play in the Cal State-Fullerton Invitational.
The Tigers' Ivy League competition begins with a home match-up against Penn March 27 at the Lenz Tennis Center.
With this weekend's success under its belt, the women's tennis team looks to fare well this season among its Ivy rivals.
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