Men's Tennis Remains Unbeaten in Conference

The Harvard men’s tennis team put its nine-match winning streak on the line this weekend when it went on the road to face Ivy League foes No. 50 Princeton and Penn. By Sunday evening, the No. 19 Crimson (16-4, 4-0 Ivy) had extended its streak to 11 matches and improved its record in conference play to 4-0.

Harvard now sits atop the conference as it continues its bid to repeat as Ivy League champions.

Senior co-captain Andy Nguyen explained the different challenge playing on the road presents.

“It’s always a little different traveling on the road,” Nguyen said. “All of the matches are really hard fought. Princeton brought out a really large crowd and it was very rowdy. With crowds like that, it feels even better to fight and end up with a win.”

HARVARD 4, PENN 3

On Sunday, the Crimson completed its weekend road sweep by taking down the Quakers (9-9, 1-4 Ivy), 4-3, at the Hamlin Tennis Center in a match that was as tightly contested as the final score indicated.

Harvard’s No. 2 doubles team of freshman Nicky Hu and senior Andy Nguyen lost, 8-5, but sophomore Alex Steinroeder and freshman Kelvin Lam made up for the loss with an 8-5 win on the third court. The doubles point was decided on the first court, where junior co-captain Casey MacMaster and sophomore Denis Nguyen won in a tiebreaker after being down, 6-2.

The Crimson extended its lead to 2-0 after Andy Nguyen ran his record at fourth singles to 12-2 with a 6-2, 6-1 win. Denis Nguyen took a 6-3, 6-4 victory at No. 1 singles to give Harvard a comfortable, 3-0, margin.

Andy Nguyen chalked up his success this season to increased motivation.

“It’s my senior year, and I really want to win an Ivy Championship,” he said. “So I am trying my hardest.”

Freshman Nicholas Mahlangu, playing because Hu suffered a sprained ankle, lost, 7-5,7-5, in the fifth slot, but sophomore Shaun Chaudhuri won in three sets at No. 2 to give the Crimson the clinching fourth point.

After Harvard earned victory, Lam and Steinroeder both lost in three sets for the final 4-3 margin.

“It was a dogfight today,” Crimson coach Dave Fish said. “We were fortunate to come away with the doubles point, which was huge. Sunday’s matches were just very nervy and heavily contested.”

HARVARD 5, PRINCETON 2

Saturday’s matchup pitted the Ivy League’s last two unbeaten teams against each other, with the Crimson at 2-0 after last weekend’s home sweep of Columbia and Cornell and the Tigers at 3-0. By the end of the day, Harvard stood alone after taking down Princeton (15-5, 4-1 Ivy), 5-2, on its home courts at the Lenz Tennis Center.

The Crimson showed that its recent dominance over the Ancient Eight extended to road matches. Harvard replicated its 5-2 victory over Princeton from last season in extending its win streak to ten matches.

The 55th-ranked doubles team of MacMaster and Denis Nguyen took down the Tigers’ 46th-ranked pair, 9-7, and Lam and Steinroeder scored an 8-5 victory to give the Crimson the doubles point for the tenth straight match.

In singles, MacMaster lost, 6-2, 6-1, on the sixth court as the Tigers tied the match at 1-1, but the rest of the team quickly made up for his loss. Steinroeder won, 6-4, 6-1, at No. 3, Chaudhuri defeated Princeton’s Zack McCourt, 6-3,6-4, at No. 2, and Hu won, 7-5, 7-5, on the fifth court to give Harvard its fourth point and lock up the victory.

In the rest of the action, Andy Nguyen earned a 6-4, 6-4 win, and Denis Nguyen lost to the Tigers’ Matija Pecotic, the nation’s No. 8 ranked singles player by a score of 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. Pecotic extended his singles winning streak to 19 matches, but Nguyen became the first player since April 2011 to take a set from Pecotic in an Ivy match.

While the team is happy with its performance in Ancient Eight play so far, it cannot afford to look far ahead.

“We’re confident in our ability, but also wary,” Fish said. “We won 4-3 against Penn, and it does not take much to make us vulnerable, especially if we don’t win in the last two singles spots. Every team wants to be a spoiler and go after us. It’ll be a fight until the end.”

—Staff writer Justin C. Wong can be reached at justinwong@college.harvard.edu.