Princeton routs Rutgers at home in women's tennis

Perfect weather and straight wins across the board. The women's tennis team couldn't have asked for a better precursor to its Ivy season. The Tigers went into their matches against Rutgers relatively confident and Princeton prevailed, 7-0.

The team took the doubles point as Princeton won all three matches. Playing in the No. 1 spot, sophomore Vanti Bhargava and junior Kavitha Krishnamurthy won their match 8-5. At No. 2, senior co-captains Priya Bhupathi and Kristy Watson swept their match with a final score of 8-1. And the No. 3 spot also maintained the trend with an 8-2 win.

After gaining confidence early on, the Tigers went into the singles matches with a good grip on the contest, but Rutgers handed the Tigers a few surprises.

The team had already faced off against Rutgers in the fall and won, 6-1. Even though Princeton took a near sweep across the board, Rutgers upped their caliber of play in a few specific cases, handing the Tigers a few unexpected turns during the singles matches.

Both Bhupathi and freshman Stephanie Berg took their matches to tie-breakers, but the women dominated, every match ending with a point for the Tigers.

In the No. 1 spot, Krishnamurthy won easily, smoking her opponent 6-0, 6-0. Not to be shaken, Krishnamurthy came back in full effect despite an ankle injury during one of the matches on the spring trip in California.

Watson, who has had a particularly strong season, dominated her match as well, beating Rutgers 6-3, 6-1 in the No. 2 spot.

Bhupathi was one of the women to take her match to a tie-breaker, ending with a victory of 6-2, 7-5. Given the trend of all of the singles matches finishing in just two sets, the Tigers knew they had the win.

But Rutgers threw Princeton a surprise in the No. 4 spot with freshman Stephanie Berg. The first set was lost in a tie-breaker, but she came back to win the second set. In the third set, however, Berg put up a tremendous fight, winning 11-9. Apparently, Berg's opponent is known for her late comebacks that she had done last fall when playing Bhargava.

Sophomore Jackie Arcario, recovering from an ankle injury that had put her out for nearly a month, returned in full force to win her match as well with a final score of 6-4, 6-4.

Sophomore Mateya McCoy finished her match early on in the game, winning 6-1, 6-1.

Despite the seemingly easy wins, the Tigers still felt that Rutgers had improved its game a great deal.

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Overall, it was a sweep. And considering that the team will play one of the toughest Ivy teams this weekend, Penn, they have a confidence booster to put them in good position to challenge the Quakers.

The matches against Penn will take place, weather permitting at the Lenz Tennis Center on March 30. The next day the Tigers will sqaure off against New England powerhouse Massachusetts before moving on to face the remainder of the Ivy League teams.