Harvard Earns First Win, Drops Pair

The rackets are heating up just in time for conference play.

The Harvard men’s tennis team built on the momentum it garnered last weekend to come up with its first win of the season this Saturday. The Crimson faced stiff opposition from programs that are at the same level as Harvard. The No. 61 Crimson invited No. 62 Brigham Young University, No. 67 Mississippi State University, and DePaul University to the Harvard Kick Off Tournament. This even competition allowed the Crimson to further assess its progress thus far and fine-tune its play before the team starts defending its ECAC crown.

“Mississippi State almost took out [top ten] Ole Miss, so it was pretty intimidating coming in,” junior Alexei Chijoff-Evans said. “Every match was an absolute war. Our doubles were looking great and we got the doubles point from every team. It’s good to see that everyone competed hard.”

Friday afternoon, the Crimson took on an in-form Brigham Young team. The Cougars won the match 4-3, taking the top four singles matches but not faring as well in doubles play. Chijoff-Evans played at the first spot and put up a battle in the first set against Thomas Shubert only to drop it, 6-7. Chijoff-Evans then took the next set, 6-3, but couldn’t come up strong in the final set, 2-6. Junior Aba Omodele-Lucien took his opening set, 6-3, but was unfortunate to also drop a frame by the closest margin, 6-7. Things didn’t pick up for the third-year starter as he also lost the decisive set, 6-4. Freshman Joshua Tchan, the top performer from last weekend’s competition, was swept in the third spot, 6-4, 6-2, along with fellow freshman Andy Nguyen, 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles play was by far Harvard’s greatest strength, as the squad took the top two games. Omodele-Lucien teamed up with freshman Christo Schultz for an 8-6 win. It was by the same score that ITA Regional Doubles champions Nguyen and sophomore Alistair Felton beat Brigham Young’s Evan Urbina and Spencer Smith. At the third spots, Chijoff-Evans and captain Michael Hayes couldn’t win against Daniel Hwang and Georgy Batrakov, falling to the Cougar duo, 8-2.

Saturday was a tiring day for the Crimson, facing a strong Mississippi State team in the afternoon while taking on DePaul at night. It was a similar story for Harvard in the first match of the day, once again dropping the top four of six singles matches but faring well in doubles play.

The Crimson showed off its doubles finesse to start the day when Chijoff-Evans and Tchan paired up to defeat the Bulldogs’ Louis Cant and Chris Doerr, 8-2. Harvard also took the other two doubles matches, with duos Felton and Nguyen and Omodele-Lucien and Schultz taking care of the sweep.

When it came to singles matches, the Crimson couldn’t come up with an answer. Chijoff-Evans lost at the number one spot to No. 42 George Coupland in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

“When I played BYU and Mississippi State, I felt I had a grip on the matches and that I was the better player,” Chijoff-Evans said. “It’s first time I’ve been first on the team and it puts a lot of pressure on me. At certain points, I was playing not to lose rather [than] to win. I was thinking too much.”

Omodele-Lucien also lost in a three set battle, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, while the freshman Tchan was swept in two sets by the same score, 6-3.

“I had some really tough matches and wasn’t able to pull out victories unfortunately,” Omodele-Lucien said. “I competed well and if I keep playing hard results will come. I will only take positives away from these losses.”

Harvard tennis showed its determination Saturday night against a then-undefeated DePaul squad. Chijoff-Evans shook off the two losses he suffered this weekend by beating Bartosz Jozwiak in the first game 6-2 and the last set was left unfinished, 3-3.

Omodele-Lucien—who dropped his third match—didn’t let his singles results translate over to his doubles play. He and Schultz won comfortably in the top spot, 8-5, with Harvard repeating the same score when Nguyen and Felton continued another successful weekend in the number two spot.

Felton and Nguyen also won their singles matches at the No.4 and No.5 spots respectively. It came down to the sixth spot between the Harvard captain Hayes and Mathias Hambach. Hayes did an excellent job edging his opponent in a close first game, 7-6, and had an easier time in the second, 6-3, to wrap up the tournament.

“We played a lot of great teams this semester and I feel like we’ve been put through the wringer,” Chijoff-Evans said. “We’ve seen what true college tennis is like and we’re going to be tough as nails going into ECAC play. Having a 1-2 record against better opposition is better than a 5-0 record against mediocre teams.”

—Staff writer Brian A. Campos can be reached at bcampos@fas.harvard.edu.