SPORTS BRIEF: Pearlman Dropped Twice At ITAs

When it rains, it pours. Just ask senior Jon Pearlman of the Harvard men’s tennis team.

This weekend at the ITA Men’s All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla., Pearlman dropped his fourth and fifth matches in a row in an inauspicious start to the fall season.

Ranked No. 78 in the ITA preseason polls, Pearlman was selected as one of the 48 competitors in the main draw and competed in a bracket of 64 players that included 42 players ranked within the top 50.

Up first for Pearlman in the main draw was sophomore Adrien Puget of UCLA on Thursday.

Puget took an early advantage by winning the first set, 6-2, and stormed to an early lead in the second set.

Pearlman fought back to 5-4, but Puget secured the final game of the match to move on to the second round of tournament. He then fell to sixth-seeded Dennis Nevolo out of Illinois.

Landing in the consolation bracket, Pearlman faced off against sophomore Malte Stropp of Mississippi State, ranked No. 46 in the nation.

Despite Pearlman’s efforts, he dropped the match in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, to leave the Sooner State winless.

Stropp went on to win his second round match in three sets before falling in the quarters.

Pearlman is 0-5 so far in the preseason but has faced players in the top 50 in all five matches. In the Harvard Fall Chowder Fest two weekends ago, Pearlman lost to No. 16 Daniel Nguyen of USC, No. 42 Alexis Klegou of Texas A&M and No. 8 Evan King of Michigan.

—Staff writer Steven T. A. Roach can be reached at sroach@fas.harvard.edu.