Men's Tennis Performs Well Against Top Competition

The Harvard men’s tennis team traveled down South this weekend to take on some top teams as it continued its fall season at the Texas A&M Conference Challenge in College Station, Texas.

The Crimson, which has already hosted highly ranked opponents from around the country and faced its Ivy rivals this fall, faced two new top squads this weekend.

Harvard took on the Aggies, who finished last year ranked No. 14 nationally and advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Championships, and Illinois, who reached the second round in those same championships.

“All in all, it was a terrific trip,” Harvard coach Dave Fish ’72 said. “The players saw some competition that was a level up, and came away thinking they have every reason to be able to play at that level. We played some good matches, and did well.”

The tournament was originally scheduled to run all weekend, but Sunday’s matches were canceled due both to rain and the Crimson’s travel plans. The Challenge consisted of one round of singles and two rounds of doubles on Friday, followed by a round of each on Saturday.

In the matches that were played, Harvard faced some tough tests against strong teams. The Crimson finished 12-15 overall, with a 6-6 mark in doubles.

In Saturday’s action, Harvard had success in both singles and doubles. The Crimson’s top doubles tandem of co-captain Casey MacMaster and junior Denis Nguyen, who are ranked 20th in the nation, upset the Illini’s tenth-ranked Ross Guignon and Tim Kopinski, 8-7(4). The freshman duo of Sebastian Beltrame and Andrew Ball took an 8-3 win, and the team of freshman Brian Yeung and sophomore Nicky Hu beat the No. 12 team in the country in Texas A&M’s Shane Vinsant and Harrison Adams, 8-7(2).

Last year’s No. 3 squad of junior Alex Steinroeder and sophomore Kelvin Lam lost, 8-5. In singles, Nguyen had another strong showing, downing the 17th-ranked player in Illinois’ Jared Hiltzik, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. Beltrame, who won his singles flight at the Ivy Plus Invitational, took a three-set win over Vinsant, the No. 56 player in the country. Connor Haughey and Lam also picked up wins for Harvard.

“We put Sebastian Beltrame at No. 2 because he’s been playing so well,” Fish said. “He came back strong on Saturday and beat a highly ranked player [Vinsant], which was a pleasant surprise for us. Sebastian is doing great, and so are all the freshmen.”

Some of the squad had a rougher time. Hu lost, 6-1, 6-1, and Yeung fell, 6-1, 6-2. Ball rebounded from losing a 6-0 first set, but fell in three.

On Friday, the Crimson played well in doubles, but posted just a 2-7 record in singles.

Nguyen and MacMaster continued to prove they are one of the top teams in the country, defeating No. 12 Vinsant and Adams, 8-7(6). Steinroeder and Lam took an 8-6 victory over the Aggies’ Behzad Minavi and Tito Moreiras. Yeung and Hu fell, 8-2, and Beltrame and Haughey lost, 8-4.

But by the time singles rolled around, the team came out flat after struggling in the Texas heat.

“The heat was hard for a lot of guys to get used to,” Fish said. We haven’t been playing after that. So after a few hours of doubles, the guys started their singles matches. Some of the guys pretty much wilted by their third sets.”

Only the freshmen Ball and Yeung won their matches. Yeung came back against the Illini’s Blake Bazarnik for a 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 win. Steinroeder, Lam, and Beltrame lost in three sets, while Haughey and Hu went down handily. Nguyen played the No. 11 team in the country, Texas A&M’s Jeremy Efferding, close, but ultimately fell, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Despite some strong matches, facing top competition proved to the team that it still has much to work on to round into midseason form.

“Doubles is something we just have to keep focusing on in practice,” Steinroeder said. “For singles, we need to keep making the points longer, and be as physical as those top teams are. They don’t miss and just keep the points going…we can learn from that.”

After concluding one of its biggest tournaments of the fall season, Harvard will get no rest. Next weekend, the Crimson will return to New Haven for the ITA Northeast Regionals, where it will face its Ancient Eight rivals as well as other northeastern schools.

“Regionals is a fun tournament for everyone,” Steinroeder said. “It’ll be fun to play all of the other Ivies again to see how we stack up. Going down to Texas A&M was a good confidence builder for us, and I think everyone will be prepared this weekend.”

—Staff writer Justin C. Wong can be reached at justincwong94@gmail.com.