CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -  One day after dropping a 4-3 decision at Brown, the No. 41-ranked William & Mary women's tennis team responded with a 4-3 victory of its own, outlasting Harvard on Sunday afternoon. Junior Ekaterina Stepanova posted a three-set win at the top singles position to secure the Tribe (8-9) victory. W&M opened the match by winning the doubles point and added singles wins from freshmen Natalia Perry and Rosie Cheng to top the Crimson (12-6), which entered the tilt on an eight-match winning streak with victories in 12 of its last 13 contests.
 
For the third-straight match, the Tribe started by taking the doubles point to jump in front 1-0. Perry and junior Cecily Wuenscher notched a 6-3 win at No. 3 over Annika Ringbloom and Sabrina Xiong. The duo improved to 4-2 at the third spot. Stepanova and junior Olivia Thaler continued their strong doubles play with their third-straight win, this time in a tiebreaker, to clinch the initial point of the match. The Tribe tandem upended Irene Lu and Natasha Gonzalez, 7-6 (8), to up its record to 5-3 at the second post.
 
Perry and Cheng wrapped up perfect singles weekends with victories at No. 3 and No. 4 in straight-sets. Perry posted her team-leading 17th singles win of the year, topping Ringbloom, 6-4, 6-4. She won her seventh dual match of the year and second at No. 3 this weekend. Cheng pushed her win streak to seven matches with a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Irene Lu at No. 4. She ran her season ledger to 13-8, including an impressive 9-3 dual-match mark.
 
After Harvard posted straight-set wins at No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6 to pull even at three, the match came down to a three-set affair at the top position. Stepanova took the opening set from the Crimson's Erica Oosterhout, 6-3, before the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year rallied to take the second, 7-5. Stepanova won for the fifth time in her last six matches, taking the decisive third set, 6-4. She improved to 13-9 overall and 8-5 at the top spot.
 
The Tribe opens up a three-match homestand with a pair in Williamsburg next week. The Green and Gold hosts CAA foe Delaware on Thursday, March 30, at 3 p.m., before welcoming defending Conference USA Champion Rice to Williamsburg on Saturday, April 1, at 11 a.m.
 
#41 William & Mary 4, Harvard 3
Singles
No. 1 – Ekaterina Stepanova (W&M) def. Erica Oosterhout (Harvard) - 6-3, 5-7, 6-4
No. 2 – June Lee (Harvard) def. Marie Faure (W&M) – 6-3, 6-2
No. 3 – Natalia Perry (W&M) def. Annika Ringbloom (Harvard) – 6-4, 6-4
No. 4 – Rosie Cheng (W&M) def. Irene Lu (Harvard) – 6-3, 6-3
No. 5 – Natasha Gonzalez (Harvard) def. Lauren Goodman (W&M) – 6-4, 6-2
No. 6 – Sabrina Xiong (Harvard) def. Maria Groener (W&M) – 6-3, 6-2
 
Doubles
No. 1 - Lee/Oosterhout (Harvard) def. Faure/Goodman (W&M) – 6-4
No. 2 – Stepanova/Thaler (W&M) def. Gonzalez/Lu (Harvard) – 7-6 (8)
No. 3 – Perry/Wuenscher (W&M) def. Ringblom/Xiong (Harvard) – 6-3