Tennis Splits Pair Of Friday Matches

Junior Alexei Chijoff-Evans and freshman Joshua Tchan teamed up in doubles to earn two victories for the Harvard men’s tennis team, which split the weekend with a loss versus No. 24 Duke and a win over Quinnipiac at the Murr Center on Friday. The Crimson (9-7) was beaten soundly by the Blue Devils (7-5), 4-0, but Harvard bounced back in the evening to get a 6-1 victory against the Bobcats (4-1).

“All in all, it was exactly what we hoped,” Crimson coach Dave Fish ’72 said. “Our goal was to come out and play a great team and hope not to get injured, because we have an Ivy opener against Columbia and Cornell next week.”

HARVARD 6, QUINNIPIAC 1

Harvard dominated the second game of its doubleheader with a 6-1 victory over the Bobcats Friday evening. The match provided a great opportunity for the team members that rarely see action.

“The second match against Quinnipiac was a chance for our guys who don’t get much exposure to play,” Fish said. “We like to coach a deep squad—it’s just that you can’t always get them into a match. We love to see them play because they work just as hard as anyone else, if not harder. We may need all these guys to get through the Ivies.”

The Crimson swept the doubles point, with Chijoff-Evans and Tchan taking No. 1 doubles, 8-5, freshmen Christo Schultz and Will McNamee winning at No. 2, 8-3, and sophomores Davis Mangham and Mac McAnulty getting an 8-3 win on the third court.

“It was great for our doubles team to practice,” Fish said. “We are really getting some rhythms on running our plays. The matches were good points. The scores were not all that close, but the points were good, so our guys could just keep working on the things they want to do better and get some momentum with it.”

In singles play, Harvard continued to dominate, with Chijoff-Evans recording a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 1 and Mangham sweeping two sets, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 5. Sophomore Alistair Felton, Schultz, and McAnulty also won in straight sets.

“It never hurts players to get a win,” Fish said. “We play a really tough schedule, and we play some of the best teams in the country...so we want to remember how to win.”

NO. 24 DUKE 4, HARVARD 0

Duke came into the match ranked No. 24 in the country, and even without its top singles player, Henrique Cunha, the Blue Devils quickly took care of business in a decisive 4-0 victory, sweeping the doubles match as well as No. 2, 4, and 6 singles.

The Crimson was also missing junior Aba Omodele-Lucien and freshman Andy Nguyen, its No. 2 and 3 singles players, respectively.

“The Duke game was a terrific match for us,” Fish said. “They are playing without their No. 1 player, who is one of the best guys in the country from Brazil, and we are playing without our No. 2 and 3 players—Aba and Andy. They’re not big injuries, but we didn’t want to risk them here, because once you’re in the Ivies, that’s what we are really competing for.”

Chijoff-Evans and Tchan got a victory in No. 2 doubles, defeating Duke sophomore Torsten Wietoska and junior Alain Michel, 8-6. But just when Harvard seemed to have a shot at taking the doubles point by sending number its top team into a tie break, Felton and Schultz could not pull it out, losing to Blue Devil senior Dylan Arnould and sophomore David Holland, 8-7 (12-10).

“I was very, very pleased with the way our kids played doubles, right up and down the line,” Fish said. “To have the doubles go down to tie breaker at No. 1 with a brand new team [was great].”

With both teams facing doubleheaders, the Crimson and Duke agreed beforehand to stop the match if one team gained a 4-0 lead. Felton fell to Arnould in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 2 singles, Holland defeated Schultz, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 4, and Blue Devil sophomore Luke Marchese won against Mangham, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 6 to seal the victory for Duke.

All three of the remaining matches—Chijoff-Evans, Tchan, and captain Michael Hayes—were in the third set after splitting the first two.

“The three other matches that were on were still in the third set,” Chijoff-Evans said. “We weren’t playing with Andy, we weren’t playing with Aba, it doesn’t look close, but if the match was played out full, it would be 4-3.”