Crimson Notches Eight Wins at Northeast Regionals

Harvard men’s tennis had the spark necessary to get things started but didn’t have the deep reservoir necessary to win it all this weekend.

The Crimson traveled to Hanover, N.H. to attend the ITA Northeast Regional tournament, a competition featuring several fellow Ivy League opponents as well as other colleges from around the region. The team fared well in the opening rounds of the tournament, winning thrilling matches deftly.

“I thought we showed some really good promise,” Harvard coach Dave Fish said. “The freshman had performances that were really good, and we showed strength in different areas.”

Five players represented the Crimson at the tournament, and each one advanced past the two opening rounds of the singles tournament. The top performer overall for Harvard was junior Alexei Chijoff-Evans, who went as far as the quarterfinals but couldn’t muster another win to advance further.

Chijoff-Evans, ranked fifth in the competition, started out with a bye on Friday, and the extra rest translated to a comfortable win on Saturday over Princeton’s Chris Brosens, 6-4, 6-0. The rest would prove to be critical as the Crimson junior had a demanding tournament, also playing in the doubles bracket alongside freshman Christo Schultz. The pair made it as far as the semifinals but did not fair as well as their teammates, sophomore Alistair Felton and freshman Andy Nguyen, who won the doubles tournament yesterday afternoon after defeating Brown, 9-7.

“In the doubles tournament today, they really couldn’t play a much better, dominant tennis in the semifinal matches, but [Bosens] and [Chijoff-Evans] just faltered,” Fish said.

Chijoff-Evans’ fatigue could be attributed to the four singles matches he faced over the weekend. After beating Brosens, Chijoff-Evans faced stiff competition from Penn’s Adam Schwartz on Sunday morning, but ended up victorious after three sets, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

Later that afternoon, the Plano, Texas native won another close contest against Cornell’s Jeff Fife, 7-6(13), 6-4. That earned him a chance to play in the quarterfinals­—­­the only Harvard player to make it that far.

The other four Crimson competitors had great starts but ended up bowing out early. Nguyen, Schultz, and Felton failed to make it past the round of 32, but freshman Joshua Tchan provided another highlight for Harvard as he reached the round of 16. On Sunday, Tchan lost to Marist’s Loic Sessagesimi, 6-3, 6-0. It was a short tournament for Felton, who was ranked 13, and for Nguyen, who fared well at last week’s tournament.

“Last weekend I won three straight matches, and I felt really good coming into this one,” Nguyen said. “The guy I played was really good, and even though I tried my best, I learned a lot.”

Yesterday morning, Chijoff-Evans faced Binghampton’s Sven Vloedgraven in a match where the Crimson junior came out with zeal but ran out of energy quick. Chijoff-Evans took the first set, 3-6, but failed to win the last two, 6-4,6-2.

“I don’t think anyone was playing a better set and half in the quarterfinals today than Alexei,” Fish said. “He got a little distracted however and showed signs of two grueling matches from [Sunday] that left him arms sore and felt that the tank was on empty. It’s a grueling tournament to win if you’re playing both singles and doubles.”

The team was without junior Aba Omodele-Lucien, who was sick and had to pull out of the tournament. Despite missing the veteran’s skills, Harvard came up with a solid performance at the tournament and has high hopes for the next one.

“We got a combination of a young and fairly experienced team,” Fish said. “The freshmen add new energy, and we reach a critical density where everyone wants to work at it, maintain good ability, and work well with each other.”

—Staff writer Brian A. Campos can be reached at bcampos@fas.harvard.edu.