Men's Tennis Advances to ECAC Semifinals, Loses to Top Seed

After a humiliating first-round exit from the ECAC Fall Men’s Division I Invitational last year, the Harvard men’s tennis team found itself on a revenge mission. And though it didn’t win the championship, the Crimson proved that last year’s performance was a fluke, advancing to the semifinals before losing to top-seeded Penn State, 5-2, in a match that was much closer than the final score indicated.

Harvard’s players took their opponents to three sets in five of the six singles matches against the Nittany Lions, though only co-captain Dan Nguyen and freshman Alexei Chijoff-Evans managed to squeeze out victories.

This tournament was the first this season in which Harvard’s players competed as a team, and the strong performance up and down the lineup—including at least one victory from three freshmen—sent a strong message that the team will be a force in the Ivy League in the spring.

But if Harvard is to live up to its lofty hopes, it will have to maintain its highest level of play from the get-go, which it failed to do against Penn State, losing the doubles point in a sweep and leaving its singles players to climb out of a hole.

“To a certain extent, we were sleep-walking through some of the matches,” junior co-captain Chris Clayton said.

Given how dominant the Crimson was in its first two matches—cruising to consecutive 6-1 victories against George Washington and Penn—the team’s early complacency against Penn State—which finished last season ranked No. 43—was perhaps understandable.

But even the doubles point wasn’t as lopsided as it seemed, as two Harvard pairs lost by a single break.

At No. 1, senior Ashwin Kumar and junior Sasha Ermakov lost, 8-6, after holding a 5-4 lead, while at No. 2, Nguyen and Chijoff-Evans lost, 8-7, after leading by two breaks early on.

Clayton and freshman Will Guzick, playing at No. 3, lost by a score of 8-3.

Having lost the doubles point, the Crimson found itself fighting to keep afloat in the match.

“We could have won the match,” Kumar said, “but the doubles turned out to be pretty crucial. To win four out of six [singles matches] is pretty tough.”

Kumar, who on Saturday produced an impressive 6-3, 6-3 victory over Penn’s star Jason Pinsky, lost to Penn State’s 35th ranked Michael James, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 1.

Clayton, playing at No. 2, lost to the Nittany Lions’ hard-serving lefty Adam Slagter in what has come to be a Clayton trademark match—hard-fought and very long.

This time, though, the three-set match—7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3—was just one of five Clayton-esque matches that the Crimson played.

“It’s just not fun otherwise,” Clayton said of his long match. “It keeps you in limbo—you’re asking yourself who’s up.”

Though the Nittany Lions went up 3-0 quickly, the match was still up for grabs, Clayton added.

At No. 3, Nguyen defeated his opponent, 6-3, 6-7(3), 1-0(7), in two sets and a match tiebreaker, played after Penn State had sealed the victory.

Playing at No. 4, Ermakov lost a relatively quick three-setter, 6-1, 1-6, 6-2.

At No. 5, Chijoff-Evans continued his strong play, winning 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

At No. 6, Aba Omadele-Lucien lost 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.

“The freshmen showed a lot of energy and a lot of heart today,” Fish said.

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