SEASON RECAP: Harvard Overcomes Injuries To Challenge for League Title

The Harvard men’s tennis team started off its 2006-07 season with the disappointing notes of the previous season still ringing in its ears. Its goals were more than just to achieve the obvious: to compete for and win the Ivy League title.

The Crimson also sought to reverse the course of its 2005-06 season, in which an inexperienced squad produced its worst performance in years, finishing third behind Penn and Brown with a 4-3 Ivy League record.

In what coach Dave Fish ’72 often characterized as a case of post-finals period rust, the Crimson opened the spring season with a three-game losing streak that seemed to herald a repeat of last year’s dismal outcome.

But during that initial skid, Harvard put together the elements of its game, laying a solid foundation for a turnaround season in which the Crimson went 10-9 overall and came within a few games of the top of the Ivy standings, ultimately losing out by just one set.

With strong leadership throughout the lineup—sophomore Chris Clayton played at No. 1 all year and senior co-captain Gideon Valkin competed at No. 5 for most of the season—Harvard had great potential, even if the outlook looked grim with an 0-3 record going into March.

But a series of frustrating injuries “kept us from firing on all cylinders,” Fish said.

No injury is ever timely, but this was a season of particularly untimely injuries, as the Crimson had just enough talent to be feared around the Ivy League but not the excess that allowed teams of years past to be unaffected by injuries.

Freshman Michael Hayes, whose performances in the fall made him a likely candidate for the starting lineup, was sidelined with a wrist injury that neutralized his strong two-handed backhand until late in the season.

Similarly, sophomore Sasha Ermakov’s ankle prevented him from reaching the tremendous potential he had displayed both last year and earlier this season.

Both Ermakov and Hayes confronted the daunting task of facing athletes in mid-year form while struggling to regain their strength.

To overcome its misfortune, Harvard worked doggedly to stay afloat and began to pick up momentum with a trip to California during spring break.

The Crimson peaked on a couple of occasions: a 6-1 victory over Stanford was the first over the Cardinal in Harvard tennis history and a 5-2 win over eventual Ivy League co-champion Columbia showed that the team belonged in the discussion of the Ivy’s best.

In these wins, the Crimson’s performance showed flashes of cohesion and swagger that could give it an edge if carried into next year.

Carrying a 2-0 Ivy record into the Penn-Princeton road trip, Harvard faltered.

Senior co-captain Scott Denenberg, whose tenacity at No. 2, 3, or 4 had lifted the squad’s morale throughout the year, succumbed to the leg pain he had battled in previous matches. With the lineup shuffled up just one spot, the Crimson lost its second match of the weekend by a razor-thin margin.

With its chances of coming out on top of the Ivies all but through, Harvard triumphed against Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth to finish one win short of tying for first place.

It was a season of singles streaks and doubles reshuffling for the Crimson. Junior Dan Nguyen pulled off a four-game win streak at the season’s outset—moving up the ladder from No. 4 or 5 to No. 3 in the process—and winning seven of his first nine matches.

Co-captain Gideon Valkin ended his season and his career with 11 straight wins, earning Harvard’s sole nomination for the NCAA Sportsmanship Award.

The doubles lineup lost the consistency of years past, suffering the consequences of the team’s many injuries—multiple lineup juggles and a generally patchy performance.

But with anything but a repeat of this year’s bad luck on the injury front, next season holds much promise for the Crimson.

Led by newly elected captains Nguyen and Clayton, the Crimson will have a strong lineup with a good mix of experience and youth.

“The blessing in disguise,” Fish said, “was that this team was left hungry.”

—Staff writer Jonathan B. Steinman can be reached at steinman@fas.harvard.edu.