Men's Tennis Set to Open NCAA Tournament Play

The Harvard men’s tennis team has withstood the rigors of the Ivy League season, but it will face a new challenge on Friday when it takes on No. 67 Samford (15-9, 7-3 Southern Conference) in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Miss.

The No. 27 Crimson (18-5, 6-1 Ivy) earned the program’s 21st berth in the tournament after clinching its second consecutive Ivy title with a win over Dartmouth on April 27th. Host Mississippi State, the region’s top seed, will take on Austin Peay on Friday.

Harvard has a 14-21 record all-time in tournament matches, and its best finish was a quarterfinal appearance in 1997.

The Bulldogs qualified for the tournament for the second time in three seasons after winning the Southern Conference Tournament.

And although the Crimson played in the NCAA Tournament last year, falling in the second round to Florida after defeating Virginia Tech, it will have plenty to contend with in Samford, which it has never faced.

Both teams faced Alabama in February—Harvard fell to the Crimson Tide, but the Bulldogs beat them. Still, the Crimson has little idea what to expect.

“We’ve never seen them play, and the same goes for them with us,” head coach Dave Fish said. “There will be a nervous feeling-out period, but we’re both going to be very competitive with each other. Both teams will be prepared, and we’ll just have to earn a win.”

Despite Samford’s low ranking relative to Harvard, it has already earned the Crimson’s respect.

“They’ve beaten Alabama, so we have a certain measure of respect for them,” Fish said. “We certainly didn’t beat Alabama. Plus, in tennis, anyone can lose to anyone on any given day.”

Harvard will look to attack the Bulldogs in doubles to establish a foothold early on, but it will have to contend with the effects of having not played in almost two weeks.

“We’ve been practicing a lot and brushing some rust off from the end of the Ivy season,” sophomore Shaun Chaudhuri said. “We haven’t competed in a match in two weeks, so we want to come out and play well.”

The Crimson’s will look to its No. 1 doubles team of sophomore Denis Nguyen and junior co-captain Casey MacMaster to set the pace. The pair earned a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection last week after posting a 13-3 record in dual play.

Senior co-captain Andy Nguyen, who plays second doubles with freshman Nicky Hu, also earned second-team All-Ivy honors in doubles.

Samford’s first doubles team of Zac Dunkle and Garrison Laduca is just 4-11, but their No. 2 and No. 3 teams both boast winning records for the season.

“Doubles has always been an equalizer for us,” Fish said. “We have a good team, but our job gets much easier if we win the doubles point. We’re pretty tough to beat when we do, so the task is to do that and give us a much better chance.”

In singles, however, the Bulldogs are strong: whereas Harvard’s top two of Denis Nguyen and sophomore Shaun Chaudhuri lost to the Alabama’s top two, Samford’s Dunkle and Elliot Barnwell took them down.

The team has a winning record at each of the six singles spots. Bulldog freshman Fares Kilani is 18-6 at third singles, including an 8-0 April run that earned him the Southern Conference player of the month, and Austin Akers is 14-8 on the fifth court on the year.

But the Crimson, too, can compete in singles. Singles specialist Chaudhuri went 6-1 in league play at No. 2, which earned him first-team All-Ivy honors. Denis Nguyen also won first-team accolades.

Harvard featured two more players on the second team: sophomore Alex Steinroeder, who went 15-8 in dual play, and Andy Nguyen, who had a dominant season, going 16-4 in dual play.

The Crimson has its sights set on a trip to the University of Illinois, but it must win two matches down south first, starting with the Bulldogs on Friday.

“Making it to the round of 16 would be great,” Chaudhuri said. “That’s a special tournament with a lot of history, and it’s one of our goals to qualify for it. We’re close, but we have to go through a couple of good teams before we get there.”

If Harvard pulls off the opening-round victory, it will be slated to play again on Saturday, taking on the winner of the match between Mississippi State and Austin Peay.

“We’re trying not to look too far forward, and will just play our game,” Chaudhuri said. “This is a fun part of the season. We’ve been working hard all year and hope it pays off, but to be honest, we just want to go out there and have some fun.”

—Staff writer Justin C. Wong can be reached at justinwong@college.harvard.edu.