Harvard Falters in Attempt for Third Straight ECAC Title

No matter the sport, the time, nor the place, the constant mark of a great team has been achieving a “three-peat”—a goal which the Harvard men’s tennis team set out to achieve this past weekend, as it hosted nine other teams at the Murr Center in hopes of attaining its third consecutive ECAC Indoor Championship.

Harvard (5-5) got off to a great start in the first round, edging Brown (6-1) on Friday, 4-3. The Crimson faced a worse fate in the later rounds, losing to Cornell (8-3) on Saturday in the semifinals, 5-2, and then falling to Princeton (5-2) yesterday in a consolation match, 6-2, to end up in fourth place in the tournament.

“Our league is remarkably even,” Harvard coach Dave Fish said. “It’s just one of those things where on a given day, you could have five different outcomes.”

PRINCETON 6, HARVARD 1

Fighting for third place against second-seeded Princeton, the odds did not work out very heavily in Harvard’s favor.

Despite the dominant doubles force of junior Jonathan Pearlman and freshman Casey MacMaster, who extended their four-match win streak with an 8-1 victory, the Crimson conceded the doubles point.

In the singles, junior Felton grabbed Harvard’s lone point with a thrilling three-set victory at the No. 2 position. After both players split the first two sets, Felton managed to pull out an 11-9 third-set win over the Tigers’ Matt Spindler.

Junior Davis Mangham, who looked poised to take a point himself in the No. 6 match, toughed out a similar three-set match, only to fall to Princeton’s Dan Davies, 10-8, in the third.

CORNELL 5, HARVARD 2

Against top-seeded Cornell, the Crimson faced stern opposition from the tournament favorites. The squad conceded the doubles point after falling short of a win in all three of its matches.

Most dramatic was the finish to an 8-6 duel featuring senior Alexei Chijoff-Evans and sophomore Josh Tchan. The duo was on the verge of a comeback, but five points in a row for Cornell swayed the momentum against them.

In the No. 6 matchup for the singles, Mangham looked to set the tone early on. He won, 6-2, in the first set, but dropped the second set, 6-3. It came down to the final set, but the tiebreaker proved just too much for Mangham, as the Big Red’s Zhongming Chen scored a narrow 11-9 victory to take another point for his squad.

Three matches later, the Crimson had narrowed Cornell’s lead to one point following dominant performances from Nguyen and Tchan at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively. Nguyen dominated the Big Red’s Mirza Klis 7-6, 6-2. Tchan followed suit with a 6-1, 6-2 finish over Cornell’s Jeremy Feldman.

“We had a strong showing in singles,” captain Aba Omodele-Lucien said. “Andy Nguyen dismantled his opponent, who kind of threw everything but the kitchen sink at him, and Josh Tchan played unbelievable, the best he’s played all year.”

Eventually, the Crimson fell to the Big Red 5-2 on the day, ending its dreams of championship contention this season, with identical 6-3, 6-2 losses for Pearlman and Felton.

HARVARD 4, BROWN 3

Harvard kicked the weekend off on Friday with a narrow win over No. 5 Brown. All started well, as the Crimson swept the Bears in all three doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead.

Omodele-Lucien and Tchan partnered up to finish off their opponents by a close 8-6 margin.

In the singles, competition was much tighter, but strong performances from Pearlman at No. 1, Nguyen at No. 4, and MacMaster at No. 6 proved just enough for Harvard to edge Brown on the day, moving the hosts into the semifinals.

On the whole, the squad’s showing this weekend may have disappointed in results, but the program is still optimistic about the remainder of its season.

“Overall, I thought we fought hard,” Fish said. “We know the other competition is very good, and we know they fight hard too. We’ve got a lot of work to do in the next month for the Ivies, but I think we didn’t disappoint.”