M. Tennis Crashes Southern Party

The Harvard men’s tennis team almost kept Irish eyes from smiling this St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

Last Saturday in Montgomery, Ala., No. 44 Harvard put a major scare into fourth-ranked Notre Dame in the semifinal round of the Blue-Gray Invitational. The Crimson—which had already upset two top-35 teams in two days—eventually succumbed to the Fighting Irish, 4-3, but not before pushing Notre Dame to the final set of the deciding match in the epic semifinal.

Harvard junior David Lingman dropped the third set of that decisive contest after gutting out a second-set victory to pull even with Notre Dame’s Javier Taborga. It would have been a thrilling upset had Lingman—playing at No. 1 singles for just the fourth time this season—managed to top Taborga, who is ranked in the top-20 nationally.

“I knew that [Taborga] was getting tired [in the third set],” Lingman said. “I thought I had a pretty good shot at it.”

Lingman’s loss ended the Crimson’s lengthy match with Notre Dame, denying Harvard a chance to face No. 8 Illinois in the Blue-Gray finals. The Crimson was forced to settle for two upsets over the weekend—over No. 34 North Carolina, and No. 24 Indiana State—instead of three.

“Taking it to those two teams was important for us,” Lingman said. “Overall, the weekend was a great success.”

The Crimson, which improved to 7-2 overall with its 2-1 showing at the invitational, will next travel to Fresno State on March 25.

Notre Dame 4, Harvard 3<\b>

Harvard claimed just two of its six singles matches Saturday. Freshman No. 2 Jonathan Chu and sophomore No. 3 Cliff Nguyen won for the Crimson.

The rest of the singles matches were bitterly contested affairs, but losing battles for Harvard in the end. Sophomore Mark Riddell fell 6-4, 7-6(1) at the No. 4 spot, classmate George Turner fell 6-4, 6-4 at No. 5 and freshman Brian Wan dropped a 6-2, 6-3 decision at No. 6. The only loss where Harvard managed to take a set was Lingman’s. When he came up just short, so did the Crimson.

Still, the Crimson’s performance was quite an improvement over last spring’s 4-0 loss to the Irish in the NCAA tournament.

“We knew that we could push them,” Lingman said. “We were pretty happy with how we played, but it was definitely disappointing that we couldn’t pull it out.”

Earlier in the day, Harvard jumped out to a 1-0 lead on the Irish by winning the doubles point. The Crimson’s No. 2 team of Lingman and sophomore Chris Chiou took an 8-5 win over Notre Dame’s James Malhame and Ashok Raju, while Crimson co-captain Dalibor Snyder and Riddell pulled out a win at the No. 3 position, 9-8 (6).

Their efforts more than compensated for Harvard’s loss at the top doubles spot, where the 26th-ranked team of Chu and junior Oli Choo failed to make good on a 6-3 lead, losing 8-6 to the 5th-ranked duo in the nation.

Harvard 4, Indiana State 1<\b>

Technically it was an upset, but Harvard’s quarterfinal victory over Indiana State wasn’t all that close.

In fact, both Nguyen’s and Turner’s matches were suspended because Harvard had clinched the win before they even finished.

It was the second straight year that the Crimson topped the Sycamores by a 4-1 score.

“The guys were pretty familiar with their team,” Lingman said. “We got off to a pretty good start in doubles.”

Indeed, Harvard swept the three doubles matches to take the first point. Chu and Choo easily dismissed the Indiana State team of Stefan Hirn and David O’Connell, 8-1, in the first match. Lingman and Chiou and Snyder and Riddell then won by identical 8-6 margins.

The Sycamores were first to win a singles match, as Indiana State’s Henry Choi topped Riddell at the No. 4 spot. But it was all Harvard from there, as Lingman, Chu and Wan each won. Only Wan was pushed to three sets, but he dominated the Sycamores’ Ross Johnson in the final set, winning 6-0, 3-6, 6-0.

Harvard 4, North Carolina 2<\b>

Just as they did against Notre Dame, the Crimson’s No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams carried the day for Harvard, offsetting Choo and Chu’s loss at the top spot to secure the doubles point. Snyder and Riddell won the decisive third match in a tiebreak, 9-8(4).

The two teams traded victories in singles action before Harvard put the Tar Heels away for good in the invitational’s first round.

North Carolina’s Andy Metzler completed the first singles match of the day when he bested Harvard co-captain William Lee in straight sets at the No. 6 position. Metzler’s win tied the overall score at 1-1. But victories by Lingman and Nguyen put the Crimson back on top and, even after Chu fell at No. 2 singles, Turner’s three-set win at the No. 6 spot moved Harvard into the Blue-Gray quarterfinals.