Rookies Help Men's Tennis Find Success against MIT

Entering his 40th season as the Harvard men’s tennis head coach, Dave Fish ’72 has worked with an abundance of young tennis players during his tenure with the Crimson. Even then, the four-time ITA Regional Coach of the Year has been particularly impressed with this year’s youngsters, who performed well this past weekend at the MIT Beanpot, one of Harvard’s fall invitational tournaments.

Freshmen Michael Peters and Christopher Morrow continued their fine starts to their Crimson careers against MIT on Saturday morning, a match in which Harvard teamed up with Dartmouth men’s tennis to play the Engineers. Peters won both of his matches against MIT, partnering with sophomore Kenny Tao to defeat MIT freshmen Tyler Barr and Alex Cauneac before defeating Henry La Soya in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.

Peters, a 6’5” former football player, is playing tennis year-round for the first time since the start of high school. His development has been rapid as a result which is reflected in his recent results.

“With someone like Michael Peters, who has a gigantic forehand, we’re trying to help him…[move] more north-south, from the baseline to the net, rather than east-west along the baseline,” Fish said. “There are a lot of guys who can go east to west, but when he comes forward, he can scare the hell out of people. Anytime he can hit a second serve and come to the net, or step around and hit a forehand, or serve and volley—that’s a pressure package play.”

Morrow and sophomore partner Xavier Gonzalez defeated the MIT junior duo of Moseley Andrews and Kristopher Bronner, 6-2. Gonzalez won his singles match against Engineers freshman Sean Ko, 6-4, 6-3. Morrow, meanwhile, upset senior Dennis Garcia, 6-2, 6-4.

“Christopher Morrow has a very all-court style,” Fish said. “He’s very fast, has wonderful balance, and is adding some offense, some penetration with his groundstrokes.”

This tournament provided an excellent opportunity for younger members of the team to get more game action and work on their skills and conditioning. A key aspect of this weekend’s matches at MIT was getting used to playing indoors, something the Crimson’s less experienced players will have to deal with much more frequently going forward.

Another benefit of the low-key nature of the tournament was the chance for Tao to work his way back to full fitness. Tao, who is currently recovering from a bout with influenza and early-season shin splints, played extensively this weekend, winning both of his doubles matches with Peters against MIT and Amherst, and splitting his two singles matches. His one loss, at the hands of MIT’s Cauneac, was tightly contested. After winning the first set 6-1, Tao fell 6-4 in the second before losing the deciding tiebreaker, 10-7.

“On the second day, my shoulder started getting really sore, which is why I couldn’t keep my performance up throughout the whole match,” Tao said. “Overall, I’m very happy with how I played.”

Harvard also had split-squad action against Amherst on Friday afternoon and Boston University on Saturday afternoon. Peters, Tao, and several other Harvard players were victorious against Amherst, getting the weekend off to a strong start. Only Peters and senior Kelvin Lam featured against the Terriers in the Saturday afternoon match.

After appearing in the NCAA tournament for the past three seasons, the Crimson are looking to repeat that feat while perhaps picking up some Ancient Eight silverware in the process. Winning the conference, however, will be a tall order given the league’s depth.