Men's Tennis Splits Matches Against No. 9 Northwestern, Boise State

This weekend, the Harvard men’s tennis team traveled to Evanston, Ill., to compete in two non-conference matches. On Saturday, the Crimson took on No.9 Northwestern, while the squad faced off against Boise State the following day.

While the team fell to the undefeated Wildcats (9-0), it ended the weekend on a high note with a sweeping win against Boise State (1-6).

“We had a tough loss Saturday,” co-captain Jean Thirouin said. “We really wanted to bounce back and finish the weekend strong. Everyone fought really hard the whole weekend and it showed.”

Harvard 7, Boise State, 0

Harvard (5-3) started off on a strong note on Sunday by taking the doubles point early on, with a win from sophomore Chris Morrow and rookie Logan Weber. With the 6-2 win, the duo claimed a 2-0 record in doubles for the weekend. While Boise State took second doubles, the top team of junior Kenny Tao and senior Brian Yeung snagged a crucial 6-4 win at first doubles to give the Crimson the edge.

“We all wanted the win really badly, and I think that showed when we fought hard to win the doubles point,” Tao said. “That changed the momentum of the match, and we all went up a set very quickly, and eventually sealed the win.”

Harvard went on to sweep all six of the day’s singles matches.

Tao, Yeung, junior Grant Solomon, and sophomore Sam Beren claimed two-set victories at first, second, fifth, and sixth singles, respectively. Beren’s win was his first career dual match win.

“It was his first time playing in the singles lineup,” Tao said, “He took a tough loss against Northwestern, but I think he really stepped it up to get the first singles win against Boise.”

Thirouin, at third singles, and sophomore Andy Zhou both had matches that went into the third set. While Thirouin fell in a close tiebreaker in the first set, he came back to win the second set and edge out his Boise State opponent in the third set tiebreaker. Zhou, on the other hand, swept the first set, 6-2, fell short in the second set, but also came back in the third set for a win.

The win will go down as the last match the Crimson will play before ECAC Championships in Princeton, N.J. in two weekends.

Northwestern, 4, Harvard, 0

The Crimson struggled to find its footing against the ninth-ranked Wildcats team on Saturday. While Morrow and Weber claimed an early victory at third doubles, Northwestern came back at first and second doubles to take the doubles point.

Yeung and Tao then fell to Northwestern co-captains Konrad Zieba and Sam Shropshire at first doubles, and the Wildcats earned the deciding point over Thirouin and sophomore Michael Peters at second doubles, 6-4.

“We hung in there really well in a lot of the matches, but again a few points here and there decided the outcome,” Tao said.

On the singles side, Harvard failed to earn a point against Northwestern. Tao was defeated by Kirchheimer, the No. 26 collegiate singles player in the nation, at first singles 6-3, 6-3. Although Yeung took the second set against Shropshire at second doubles, the game went unfinished.

“They were a bit sharper than us up and down the lineup Saturday,” Thirouin said. “Everyone fought really hard which showed in the second sets. I think a few more matches and we'd be ready to give them an even more competitive match.”

Thirouin fell to Zieba, 6-1, 6-4, at third singles, and both Zhou and Solomon did not finish their matches at fourth and fifth singles, respectively.

Beren fell to Broncos sophomore Jason Seidman to close out the ladder, giving Seidman his sixth consecutive win.

“While we were close in so many of the matches, I think we all were a little nervous and overly excited to play them,” Tao said.

—Staff writer Jamie Chen can be reached at jamie.chen@thecrimson.com.