Men's Tennis Edges Out Indiana

It was a sweet homecoming for the Harvard men’s tennis team, which celebrated its first home match in a month with a 4-3 victory over Indiana on Saturday. The No. 23 Crimson’s win improved the team to 7-4 on the season and marked its fifth win in its last six matches.

The Hoosiers (6-7) started strong on Saturday, breaking Harvard’s serve at No. 1 and No. 2 in the early going. On the third court, sophomore Alex Steinroeder and freshman Kelvin Lam scored an 8-4 doubles win to give the Crimson an early head start.

Although Harvard’s first team of junior co-captain Casey MacMaster and sophomore Denis Nguyen fell 8-5, freshman Nicky Hu and senior co-captain Andy Nguyen fought back from down a break to capture their match, 8-6, and secure the doubles point for Harvard. Andy Nguyen and Hu improved their record to 6-2 in doubles play for the year.

Andy Nguyen also took control in singles, where he scored a 6-4, 6-3 win over Indiana’s Dimitrije Tasic at No. 4 to give the Crimson a 2-0 lead. He is now 7-1 in dual matches on the fourth court for the season.

But the Hoosiers were ahead in other matches, and took straight-set victories over sophomore Shaun Chaudhuri at No. 2 and Steinroeder at No. 3 to even that match at 2-2. On the first court, Denis Nguyen won the first set over the Hoosiers’ Isade Juneau 6-4, but then lost the second 1-6. In the decisive third set, he scored a 6-3 win to put Harvard ahead again.

The bottom two singles spots would decide the match for the Crimson. Hu, playing at No. 5, clinched the match for Harvard with his comeback 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win. Lam fell in a third-set tiebreaker just after Hu’s win to seal the 4-3 Crimson victory.

On Sunday, the Crimson hosts two more matches, taking on Louisville in the morning and crosstown rival Boston University in the afternoon.

—Staff writer Justin C. Wong can be reached at justinwong@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @justincwong94.