Harvard Ends Season With Sweep

Next stop, Nationals.

On the warmest afternoon yet of this early spring, the Harvard men’s tennis team rolled to another 7-0 victory yesterday against Dartmouth in their last regular season contest. The coaches and players can now turn their full attention to the NCAA tournament.

After clinching the Ivy League title this past weekend with a 7-0 shutout of Brown, the Crimson celebrated with an encore performance against its last conference opponent. The title is the 27th in program history and the first since 2004. Harvard ends the 2008 season with an overall record of 15-6—7-0 in Ivy League play. As the final record showed, the whole team had a hand in the victory.

“We’re really happy they could finish with a 7-0,” coach Dave Fish ’72 said. “That just makes everybody feel good. As a coach, seeing them work so hard, I’m happy to see things fall their way.”

However, the win was not as easy as the score indicated.

“We were emotionally drained after the Brown sweep on Sunday,” junior co-captain Chris Clayton said. “But we played good tennis, even though it was a little let-down [in intensity] after clinching.”

It was a long day for co-captain Dan Nguyen and junior Michael Kalfayan. Both dropped their first set, only to come back and win in the super tiebreak. Nguyen, playing in the third singles position, fought off an early 5-7 setback, won the second set 6-2, and finally dispatched his opponent 10-7. Kalfayan, who has seen limited playing time this year, was the highlight of the day and capped the Crimson’s shutout of Dartmouth with a strong finish (4-6, 6-2, 11-9).

“The match tiebreakers are a nervous eight-or-so minutes,” Fish said. “They decide the whole match after it’s supposed to be over.”

“[Kalfayan] showed a lot of fight after being down match point,” Clayton added. “He played big ball when he needed and showed how strong of a player he is today.”

Clayton posted a 6-4, 6-3 victory over his Big Green opponent. Like the team overall, he finished undefeated in league play at the No. 2 singles position. His only in-conference loss was against Columbia, when he played at the top singles slot.

Freshmen Alexei Chijoff-Evans and Aba Omodele-Lucien, playing at the fourth and fifth singles spots respectively, continued their strong play as they finish their freshman campaigns. Chijoff-Evans won 6-2, 7-6, while Omodele-Lucien also rolled in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. Rounding out singles play at the top spot was senior Ashwin Kumar, who defeated his opponent 6-4, 6-4. Despite making no attempt at returning a few early lobs, Kumar used his strong baseline play to wear down his opponent and clinch the win.

In early doubles play, Harvard continued its recent dominance by taking two of the three match-ups. One surprise, however, was who lost.

The top pair of Kumar and junior Sasha Ermakov fell 8-9 (7-2). The pair had been riding an 11-match win streak and was previously undefeated in league play.

“It was the perfect storm, where the other team had nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Fish said. “It didn’t really matter other than having an undefeated season, and they’ll be a tough team to take on in the NCAA’s.”

At second doubles, sophomore Michael Hayes and Chijoff-Evans won 8-3. Ngyuen and Omodele-Lucien won by an identical score at third doubles.

The afternoon was also an opportunity for the team’s seniors to be honored and play in front of a home crowd one last time. With both teams standing at attention, Fish addressed the crowd and thanked Kumar, Nguyen, and Gareth Doran for their careers and contributions at Harvard.

The seniors, and the entire team, will be hoping to carry their recent successes into the national tournament, to be held in early May.

“We don’t stop here,” Fish said.

—Staff writer Lucas A. Paul can be reached at lpaul@fas.harvard.edu.