Harvard Stalls on Spring Break Trip

In its last stretch of out-of-conference competition before the Ivy League season, the Harvard men’s tennis team traveled to California for its annual spring break trip.

The Crimson went 1-3, losing the first two matches before dismantling Santa Barbara and then barely falling to Pepperdine, the No. 2 team in the country.

“People are starting to play a lot better,” captain Brandon Chiu said of his team, now 4-9 heading into Ancient Eight play. “We just haven’t had the results quite yet.”

PEPPERDINE 4, HARVARD 3

A win over the No. 2 Waves would have more than capped off the trip Saturday, but Pepperdine supplemented its doubles point with three straight-sets singles victories to inch by.

The Harvard duo of juniors Gideon Valkin and Scott Denenberg took the No. 2 match 8-4, and sophomore Ashwin Kumar and freshman Sasha Ermakov pushed the top pair in the nation to a tiebreak at No. 1, but the Green Waves took the first and third matches for an early 1-0 advantage.

Kumar edged out a 4-6, 6-2, 11-9 victory over No. 19 Pedro Rico in the top singles match.

“He struggled in the spring,” Chiu said of Kumar, “but he’s really started to step it up and turn it around.

“Ashwin’s really starting to play well,” added Chu, referring to Kumar’s top-20 singles victory. “He struggled in the spring but has started to really step it up. He’s really turned it around.”

Freshman Nick Savage and sophomore Brian Wan also pulled out wins, but the Waves took the first, third, and fifth matches by dropping a total of 13 games, and that was enough for the 4-3 Pepperdine win.

HARVARD 6, SANTA BARBARA 1

The Crimson secured the doubles point with wins at No. 2 (Valkin and Denenberg) and No. 3 (Ermakov and Savage) and then took five of six singles matches for the victory Thursday in Santa Barbara.

Only two came in straight sets—Wan at No. 4 and Ermakov at No. 5—and rookie Chris Clayton’s match at No. 2 stretched three and a half hours, well after Harvard had secured the overall victory.

“It was good to see him, a freshman, keep fighting after the match was decided,” Chiu said.

SAN DIEGO STATE 4, HARVARD 2

The threat of rain meant that singles competition was held first Tuesday in San Diego.

Only sophomore No. 5 Dan Nguyen and No. 6 Ermakov took their matches, and then the rain itself forced the cancellation of the doubles point, as the Aztecs had already guaranteed the win.

SAN DIEGO 4, HARVARD 3

The No. 36 Toreros just edged out the Crimson Monday in San Diego.

Despite an energetic start that won Harvard the doubles point, San Diego took the top three singles matches in straight sets and managed another three-setter for the win.

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.