Ivy Split Spells End Of Postseason Hopes

The No. 69 Harvard men’s tennis team took on two Ivy foes this weekend, No. 66 Yale and No. 65 Brown, needing two wins to move up in the standings and have a shot at the league title.

After edging the Bulldogs 4-3 on Friday in Cambridge, the Crimson a 4-3 loss to the Bears in Providence, R.I. yesterday.

“These Ivy League matches are always tough,” captain Brandon Chiu said. “It’s always a battle.”

Yesterday’s loss put Harvard (7-12, 3-3 Ivy) out of contention to win the Ancient Eight crown, as the University of Pennsylvania wrapped up the title with a 5-2 win over Columbia yesterday.

BROWN 4, HARVARD 3

After playing outdoors on Friday, the Crimson moved indoors yesterday at Brown.

Despite losing the first of the three doubles matches, Harvard battled back, taking the second and third contests 9-7 and 9-8, respectively, to snatch the doubles point.

When the match shifted to singles play, the Crimson’s top three took the court. Sophomore Ashwin Kumar took his match at No. 1, 1-6, 7-6, 6-4, but the Bears took the matches at No. 2 and No. 3 to even the overall score at two.

“It was a see-saw battle,” Chiu said, “especially on the first three courts.”

“Ashwin was down early, but he came back and won,” Chiu added. “He didn’t have a bad start—[Yale] just came out firing and went up on him.”

With the score tied, Brown defeated Harvard’s Sasha Ermakov at No. 4 and Brian Wan at No. 6 to clinch the match. No. 5 Chiu knocked off his opponent 7-6, 6-4, for Harvard’s final point.

“I had a lot of fun out there,” Chiu said of his match. “It was pretty close all the way through the first set—then I just came out and put the pressure on him in the tiebreaker.”

HARVARD 4, YALE 3

After sweeping the doubles competition, the Crimson took three of the six singles matches to defeat the Bulldogs Yale on a chilly Friday afternoon at the Beren Tennis Center.

In doubles action, the Harvard combo of Chiu and freshman Nick Savage struggled early on Court 3 but came back to win five straight games en route to an 8-3 victory.

“We had a little bit of a shaky start,” Chiu said. “But things started rolling. Nick and I played some good doubles.”

Harvard clinched the doubles point on Court 2, with a win from Scott Denenberg and Gideon Valkin, 8-4, while No. 36 Kumar and Ermakov completed the sweep on Court 1, 8-6.

“It’s always crucial [to get the doubles point], because it is tough to win four out of six singles” Kumar said. “We knew Yale’s No. 1 guy was really good, and they’re really deep, so doubles was crucial.”

In singles play, Wan (6-1, 6-1) and Ermakov (6-4, 7-6) picked up wins for Harvard, but Bulldogs victories at No. 5 and No. 3 brought the score to 3-2.

Freshman Chris Clayton secured the dual match for the Crimson, knocking off Yale’s Milosz Gudzowski, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3, and Bulldog Brandon Wai came from behind to defeat Kumar at No. 1 for Yale’s final tally.

“This is some of the best I’ve played all year,” Kumar said of his match. “[Wai] is the best player in the region by far, and I had him 5-3 in the third...it’s encouraging that I played well.”

The Crimson will take on Dartmouth tomorrow at 3 p.m. at the Beren Tennis Center in its final match of the season.