Men's Tennis Sweeps Weekend in California

After breaking into the AP Top 25, the No. 23 Harvard men’s tennis team (12-4) captured the Mission Valley Spring Classic. The Crimson finished with a 4-2 win Saturday over No. 20 Drake (17-2), culminating a three-day stretch in which the team took 12 of 16 matches.

“I think, first of all, it is great playing outdoors because it is more of a physical game,” sophomore Henry Steer said. “The match in the finals is a really good match for the team because it showed we can beat good opponents. It was a good confidence-building win against a top 20 opponent. It’s a match where the team came together and found a way to win.”

HARVARD 4, DRAKE 2

Harvard began quickly against Drake, taking two of the doubles matches in quick succession. Junior Casey MacMaster and sophomore Denis Nguyen took the line one doubles, 8-3, while freshmen Kelvin Lam and sophomore Alex Steinroeder defeated Drake’s line three team, 9-7.

In singles, Lam quickly fell on line six to Drake’s Ben Mullis, 6-1, 6-1. However, freshman Nicky Hu, senior Andy Nguyen, and sophomore Shaun Chaudhuri were able to pull out wins to clinch the victory for Harvard. Hu lost the first set, 2-6, to Drake’s Jean Erasmus before finishing the match off, 6-3, 7-6(5).

“I think the main strength of this team is its fight and resiliency,” Steer said. “This team wins matches when guys go out there and they don’t have their best day, but they find a way to win. A lot of times it just takes fight and heart and finding a way to get it done.”

HARVARD 4, SAN DIEGO STATE 1

In the semifinals, the Crimson defeated host San Diego State behind two wins from Denis Nguyen. Nguyen and MacMaster took line one doubles, and then in the singles, Nguyen lost the first set, 2-6, to the Aztecs’ Derek Siddiqui but battled back to take the next two sets, 6-0, 6-1.

While Steinroeder lost in the number three line against Aztec Hunter Nicholas, Andy Nguyen and Hu pulled out wins on lines four and five to propel Harvard to victory. Hu and Nguyen lost a combined seven games in the two matches.

“I thought everyone on the team played well [this week],” Chaudhuri said. “We went outdoors for the first time this season, and we competed well. We had a couple days to train outdoors, and I think everyone worked hard and was ready, and we took out some very good teams so it was a very good week overall.”

HARVARD 4, UAB 1

Harvard stretched its win streak to five in its Thursday opener, defeating UAB, 4-1, in the first round of the tournament. Steinroeder and Lam did not lose a game in winning their doubles opener, 8-0, and Andy Nguyen and Hu helped the Crimson clinch the doubles point with an 8-1 victory.

In singles, Harvard recorded wins in straight sets at the second, fourth, and fifth lines. Lam continued his hot start, winning the first six games of his match to stretch his streak to 14 in a row before winning the final set, 7-5. Denis Nguyen fell, 6-3, 6-3, in line one action, and MacMaster and Steinroeder were in second-set tiebreakers when they stopped playing. It was the first match of the year that the Crimson played outside.

“I thought we fought really well,” Steer said. “Especially in the finals...the other team was very rowdy and brought a lot of energy. I thought we matched that energy and rose to the occasion. We played a lot better at the end of the tournament then at the beginning.”

Chaudhuri said that the strength of the team, which is very young, with only one senior and two juniors, is its depth. The sophomore said that the team boasts equal talent across its lineup and that, one through six, it has the ability to pull out tough matches.

“I don’t want to say as a younger team we have more of a learning curve and we are definitely growing each day to help our team in the future,” Chaudhuri. “We are a really even team. Its not like we have a couple good players and it drops off; anyone can come away with a win on any day."

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at davidfreed@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @CrimsonDPFreed.