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Ivy Participants Bow Out of NCAA Tennis Championships
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communicationsand Princeton Athletic Communications
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Ivy League's participants in the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Tennis Championships bowed out in the first round of the singles and double competition held at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center on the campus of Texas A&M.
Harvard's Chris Clayton saw his season and career come to a close with a first-round loss to No. 15 Blake Strode of Arkansas, 6-2, 6-2. With the loss, the 2009 Ivy League Men's Tennis Player of the Year finishes out his season with a 20-11 record and his career with an 84-49 overall record. It marked the second year in a row Clayton has competed at NCAAs after falling in the first round of 64 to Brett Helgeson of Notre Dame last year at the championships, held at the University of Tulsa.
Fellow Crimson Beier Ko bowed out on the grandest of stages as she went against Nadia Abdala of Arizona State. Abdala defeated Ko, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4, and brought Ko's career to a close as of one of the Crimson's all-time greats. The 2009 Ivy League Women's Tennis Player of the Year finishes her outstanding senior season with an overall record of 15-9 and closes out her career at Harvard with a record of 44-21. Ko is only the third woman in Harvard women's tennis history to compete in the NCAA Singles Championship three times in her career. She also closes her season as the 99th ranked player in the Campbell's Intercollegiate Tennis Association Women's Singles Poll.
The Princeton doubles team of Hilary Bartlett and Taylor Marable lost to Ole Miss' Karen Nijssen and Kristi Boxx 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in the first-round of the doubles tournament. The first-team All-Ivy duo was an automatic qualifier to the championship by virtue of being ranked in Campbell's ITA Women's Doubles top 60.
