SEASON RECAP: Youth Causes Team Struggles

The 2005-2006 men’s tennis team was the youngest that Harvard had put together in recent years, and its inexperience showed.

With as many as three freshmen in the Crimson’s starting lineup—all of whom had to make adjustments in the new environment of college tennis—Harvard could not compete at the level it was accustomed to and suffered losses to opponents that it had once handled with relative ease.

Frustrated by a season filled with heartbreaking losses—many decided by a single point—the Crimson finished with a record of 8-12 overall and 4-3 in the Ivy League, tied for third behind Penn and Brown, who both finished 6-1.

“The results weren’t as great as was expected,” co-captain Brandon Chiu said. “As a younger team, we didn’t have the college experience [we needed to succeed], but the level of play was there.”

The two stories of the season for the Crimson involved two broken streaks. The first—more of a lowlight—involved Cornell, which snapped a 45-year losing streak against Harvard by winning five of six singles matches and delivering the Crimson its first Ivy loss of the season, a loss that sophomore Ashwin Kumar called “the worst singles performance we had all season.”

After losing to Columbia the very next day, Harvard desperately needed to snap out of its funk, and the team did so the following weekend by securing an impressive 5-2 victory over the Quakers (18-6, 6-1), who rode into the contest on a 12-match winning streak.

The Crimson then went on to defeat Princeton and Yale in two 4-3 matches before losing to Brown.

Harvard closed out its season with a win against Dartmouth.

In early May, Kumar and freshman Sasha Ermakov earned a bid to the NCAA Doubles Championship, but were ousted in the first round. The duo finished the season 10-7, and both received first team All-Ivy League honors.

The Crimson also had impressive seasons from sophomore Dan Nguyen, who finished 14-9, and the doubles pair of juniors Scott Denenberg and Gideon Valkin (12-2).

“The college experience has opened my eyes to the type of the tennis I can play,” Ermakov said. “It’s been a roller-coaster ride. All of us had our problems adjusting to college tennis in general, but I think the extra year will make a big difference.”

“This year has made the young guys more hungry for the Ivy title,” Chiu said. “They realize now how competitive the league is. This year we tended to underestimate [the opposition], but the team will be much more hungry next year.”

—Staff writer Tony D. Qian can be reached at tonyqian@fas.harvard.edu.