Harvard Stumbles In Mid-West Trip

The Harvard men’s tennis team traveled to Indiana hoping to taste victory, but instead had to swallow the bitter taste of defeat, as it lost two matchups this weekend.

Harvard suffered its first defeat in a close battle against Purdue (7-2) on Saturday, and the bad luck continued into the squad’s next match against the No. 50 Indiana Hoosiers (4-1) on Sunday. The Crimson (4-4) could not capitalize on the momentum it had from winning its second-consecutive title at the ECAC Championships last weekend.

“I felt the team had a good showing this weekend,” junior Alexei Chijoff-Evans said. “Everybody fought and played hard, but luck just wasn’t on our side.”

NO. 50 INDIANA 6, HARVARD 1

A day after losing a close match, the Harvard men just could not pull it together as they suffered another defeat at the hands of Indiana. The Crimson challenged the Hoosiers, but Indiana had all the answers, as the host team cruised to a 6-1 victory. It was Harvard’s fourth loss of the season and the Hoosiers’ fourth win.

“We fought really hard,” junior Aba Omedele-Lucien said. “The performance was pretty good, but we just didn’t get the wins in the right spots.”

Freshman Andy Nguyen was the only player to pick up a point for his team, as he edged his opponent in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6, at the No. 6 singles position. Omodele-Lucien and freshman Christo Schultz teamed up to defeat their opponents in the doubles portion of the matchup, but the other two pairs failed to win their matches, giving the doubles point to Indiana.

“Christo and I have been playing solid doubles this year,” Omedele-Lucien said. “We came out with a lot more energy than they did, held our service game, and broke them right away. We felt they got a little tight and tried to keep the energy high. We just kept steamrolling and came up with the victory by a landslide.”

Omodele-Lucien and Chijoff-Evans also had the toughest singles showings for the Crimson, dropping their respective matches in three sets. Chijoff-Evans fell, 6-2, 6-7, 7-6, at the top spot, while Omodele-Lucien also picked up the middle set in a losing effort, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.

PURDUE 4, HARVARD 3

Harvard went into the Purdue match with high hopes of starting the weekend off on the right foot, but could not pull off the win in a tight matchup. The Crimson put up a fight against Purdue but came up just short, as the Boilermakers handed Harvard its third loss of the season.

The Crimson clinched the doubles point with the pairs of Omodele-Lucien/Schultz and sophomore Alistair Felton/Nguyen overpowering their opponents, 8-2 and 8-4, respectively. In singles play, Chijoff-Evans and Nguyen notched wins for the team in straight sets, but the other four players lost close contests against their opponents, giving Purdue the 4-3 win.

Sophomore Davis Mangham and rookie Joshua Tchan endured the closest losses, pushing their opponents to three sets each. Tchan and his opponent at the fourth position were separated by just a break in each set, with Boilermaker Branko Kuzmanovic coming out on top, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. Mangham also went the distance in a losing effort, dropping the No. 6 singles match, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

“We lost some key points that would have helped us win against Purdue, but I’m really happy with how everybody played,” Chijoff-Evans said.

After failing to win its two matches this weekend, Harvard sets its sights on turning the season around against Boston College and St. John’s next weekend. The team looks to improve on its record and prepare to play its Ivy League competitors in the future.

“We showed a lot of heart this weekend,” Omedele-Lucien said. “We have a lot of positive aspects to take away, and we’re making ourselves stronger and more prepared for the Ivy League season. We would like to win these matches, but our priority is to use the matches to improve for the Ivy League matches. We just need to play aggressively to beat them.”