No. 16 Harvard Men's Tennis Prevails in Comeback Effort

A calm settled over the Murr Center tennis courts as freshman Henry Steer prepared for his final serve of the evening.

Steer bounced the ball twice, stopped, and then took three more bounces before delivering a powerful serve. After a short volley, Steer’s opponent ended the game, set, and match by hitting the ball into the net.

This final game, a come-from-behind victory, epitomized the evening for the No. 16 Harvard men’s tennis team (14-1), which at one point in the night found itself down in four out of six singles matches against Boston College (4-8, 0-5 ACC).

But the deficit was not long-lasting. The Crimson quickly came back and defeated its opponent, 6-1, Wednesday night.

After losing his first set, 7-5, Steer dominated the second and third sets, winning 6-3 and 6-2, respectively.

The victory secured a 6-1 win over the crosstown rival Eagles. And although Harvard has not lost a match since Feb. 4, its tenth victory in a row did not come easily.

The Wednesday night matchup began with doubles play. Freshman Alex Steinroeder and senior Jonathan Pearlman set the tone early, dominating their opponents, 8-1.

This was not the case, though, for sophomore Casey MacMaster and senior Alistair Felton as the pair dropped its match, 8-5.

As each team had won one doubles match, the Crimson needed to win the third to secure the doubles point. This burden fell to junior Andy Nguyen and freshman Denis Nguyen.

In the early goings of the match, it appeared that the Harvard players could not handle the pressure. The twosome fell behind, 3-2, and Boston College gained momentum.

Fueled by their teammates’ encouraging cries, Nguyen and Nguyen mounted a rally to take the next game, eventually closing out a defeat of their opponents, 8-6.

The Crimson went into singles play with the early 1-0 lead, but the Eagles nearly erased the deficit.

Pearlman—who played at the No. 1 spot for Harvard—and his opponent traded the lead for much of the first set, tying the games total at three and four apiece.

The battle would continue for two more games until Pearlman lost, 6-4. The senior went on to drop the next set, 6-1.

After five games in the first set, Denis Nguyen found himself in the same position he been in during his doubles match.

The freshman fell behind, 2-3, but rallied to take the next game. His opponent recaptured the lead, 4-3.

But Nguyen remained calm and used a strong forehand to tie the frame. He never looked back, winning the set, 6-4, and, shortly after, taking the next set by the same score.

Fellow rookie Shaun Chaudhuri, fell into an even deeper hole during his match. Chauduri, who is undefeated (15-0) in singles play this year, dropped four of his first six games.

"I knew I was down early, but I didn’t panic," Chaudhuri said. "I kept playing strong and aggressive and hoped that things would fall my way."

True to his word, the freshman rallied from 4-2 down to take the first game, 6-4. His strong play carried into the next frame, which he won handily, 6-2.

Meanwhile, Steinroeder’s match followed the same pattern. The freshman lost his initial set, 6-4, but stormed back to take the next two sets, 6-1 and 6-0, respectively.

"I look around at the scores during my matches, and I saw that we were down in most of them," Steinroeder said. "It was a little scary, but then we started to pull it together and play strong."

Unlike the rest of his teammates, Andy Nguyen did not fall behind in his match. He won both his first and second set handily, each by a margin of 6-2.

Despite his team’s slow start, Steinroeder noted his belief that Wednesday night’s match can help the Crimson as it climbs up in the national rankings.

"We started out slowly today, and I think that was because we were riding a high from spring break," Streinroder said. "This was also the first match on a school night. That being said, I think that tonight says a lot about our team. It shows that we are able to settle down and rally if we fall behind early."