Defending Ivy League Champions Dropped

One year ago, Penn defeated the Harvard men’s tennis team in the only matchup between the two teams for the 2006-2007 season.

“We came in this year thinking Penn is one of the toughest teams in the Ivies,” senior Ashwin Kumar said. “The teams are relatively unchanged from last year, so we knew it would be a battle.”

This time, the Crimson took the win, in decisive fashion.

Harvard (11-6, 3-0 Ivy) dominated the Quakers (11-9, 2-2 Ivy) at the Murr Center Friday afternoon, dropping only one set in a 7-0 trouncing, its first shutout victory of the season.

With the win, Harvard retains first place in the Ivy standings.

“We played great,” Kumar added. “This is our best Ivy match this year. We’re just excited about where we’re at.”

All doubles matches for the afternoon were closely contested, but the Crimson managed to convert victories in all three opportunities.

The No. 33 duo of Kumar and junior Sasha Ermakov notched its eighth straight doubles triumph in an 8-6 win at No. 1, while co-captain Dan Nguyen and freshman Aba Omodele-Lucien tallied a win of their own by the same margin at No. 3. Sophomore Michael Hayes and freshman Alexei Chijoff-Evans held off the Quakers in a 9-7 contest at No. 2 to round out the doubles sweep for Harvard.

With the continued success of Kumar and Ermakov, the possibility of a berth at the NCAAs looms larger.

“They played well,” Harvard coach Dave Fish ’72 said. “If they can keep the momentum up, they have a good chance to make nationals. Overall, I think we can play even better doubles than that, too. I think we were just nervous with Penn. We lost last year, and they’ve won the league for two years.”
Unfazed by the Quakers, the Crimson continued its success with another clean sweep in the singles round.

Chijoff-Evans led off with a quick 6-1, 6-2 dismissal of Justen Roth at No. 6. Ermakov capped off his match shortly thereafter with a 6-2, 6-3 winner at No. 4 over Justin Fox. No. 108 Chris Clayton clinched the victory for Harvard with a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 triumph at No. 2, while Nguyen notched a fifth point for the Crimson with his 6-4, 6-4 finish at No. 3.

No.1 singles saw Kumar stave off a second-set comeback attempt by senior Jason Pinsky The Harvard senior stormed out early by breaking serve in the first game, but Pinsky crawled back and tied the set up at 5-5 with a break of his own. Kumar ultimately pulled away with another break in the 11th game, setting up service for the 7-5 win.

“We’ve had some really close matches in the past, so we knew it would be close.” Kumar said. “I had to bring out my best tennis to have a shot, and luckily I played well and was able to come through.”

The last match to finish pitted Omodele-Lucien against Adam Schwartz of the Quakers at No. 5. After falling 3-6 in the first set, the only set the Crimson dropped on the afternoon, Omodele-Lucien took charge in a 6-4 second set win. In the decisive third set, the Harvard freshman completed the comeback with a well-fought 15-13 tiebreaker victory, securing the sweep.

“I was really satisfied with today’s win,” Omodele-Lucien said. “I definitely wasn’t at my highest level. I had to work through some of the bad parts of the match. When you’re down and under pressure, you just have to go for it and not play with nervousness, but with fearlessness.”

The Crimson has four more Ivy contests left on the schedule in its pursuit of the league title, the first of which was on Saturday against Princeton.

“We looked at them as the other major force in the league,” Fish said. “We expect them to be at full strength [on Saturday]. It should be a great battle, and that’s the kind of match we need. We won’t make a big deal out of today. It’s who comes to play that day that matters.”