Men's Tennis Shows Promise Against Top Squads at Hokie Challenge

After getting off to a rocky start, the Harvard men’s tennis team was able to find its rhythm at the Hokie Challenge hosted by Virginia Tech.

The Crimson traveled to the Burrow-Burleson Tennis Center in Blacksburg, Va., to take part in a round-robin weekend tournament, which also featured No. 23 Auburn University, No. 27 Virginia Tech, College of Charleston, and Indiana University. Day one was not kind to Harvard, as the squad fell in 10 out of 12 matches to the highest-ranked opponent at the competition. But the Crimson fought back throughout the weekend, recording several key wins to keep the team in the tournament.

“I thought the guys did great this weekend,” Harvard coach Dave Fish said. “We really liked what we saw, especially since the caliber of competition was very high. We were in these matches.”

The tournament stood as a good indicator for the young Crimson team of where it stands after a fairly successful fall season that included many highlights. One such standout effort came at the end of the season when sophomore Alistair Felton and freshman Andy Nguyen won the ITA Northeast Regional doubles championship. After a hiatus of over two months without tournament play, Harvard sought to build on its momentum, but it could not keep pace with the Tigers.

Junior Alexei Chijoff-Evans faced Auburn’s Tim Puetz in the Flight A Singles match. Chijoff-Evans dropped both sets, 6-3, 6-2, to the German-born junior, who had a good campaign in the fall. In the Flight B Singles match, Junior Aba Omodele-Lucien also fell in straight sets to Alex Stamchev, 6-3, 6-4.

Nguyen didn’t have much luck either as the rookie looked to pull out a win in the second set of the Flight C Singles match. He came up short against freshman Tiger Tim Hewitt, 6-3, 7-5. Hewitt was one of five freshmen for Auburn who contributed significantly to the success of the Tigers over the weekend.

Nguyen earned a measure of retribution, though, in the Flight B doubles match when he paired up with Felton once again to take on Hewitt and Lucas Lopasso. In a back-and-forth match, the Crimson edged out Auburn to take the win, 9-8.

The only other Harvard victory on the first day came in the Flight D singles match. Freshman Joshua Tchan took the match from Lopasso, 6-4, 6-3.

“It would be highly unusual if we were ready for that [level of competition] yet,” Fish said. “We can match shot for shot, but [Auburn] can do it longer and with fewer errors. [Still], what we saw from our guys thus far is very encouraging.”

The Crimson came back strong on the second day of the round-robin tournament to repeat what Auburn had done to the team a day earlier. Harvard took 10 of 12 matches in a convincing defeat of the College of Charleston.

In the Flight A Singles match, Chijoff-Evans had to battle for the win against Lucas Koncilla. After Chijoff-Evans won the first set 6-3, Koncilla reciprocated with a 6-3 win of his own before dropping the last set, 6-1. Omodele-Lucien won his Flight B singles match against Michael Trintignac, 6-3, 6-3.

Nguyen won his singles match as well, defeating Mickael Boyer 6-3, 6-4. Tchan couldn’t pull out another win on day two, falling to Tom Delme, 7-6 (22), 6-2.The Crimson also fared well in doubles play, recording wins in the top two flights and one in Flight D.

Harvard advanced to the last day of tournament play, facing host Virginia Tech in several tough contests. Chijoff-Evans couldn’t overcome the momentum Yoann Re garnered from a close first set win, 7-5, as the top Crimson competitor also dropped the second set, 6-3. Omodele-Lucien and Nguyen dropped their singles matches as well—both ending the weekend with a record of 1-2—while Tchan capped off a solid performance by defeating No. 100 Sebastien Jacques, 6-4, 0-6, 7-5. Tchan also teamed up with sophomore Davis Mangham to win the Flight D doubles match. Captain Michael Hayes praised the talented rookie’s effort, but gave credit to the entire squad for getting better through its matches.

“Josh Tchan was definitely our top performer this weekend,” Hayes said. “There was a lot of improvement. Even though the first day there was some rust, the next two days we got things done. We got a lot of practice matches against good quality opposition, so it was a great warm-up tournament.”

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