No. 32 Men's Tennis Swept By No. 28 Oklahoma State

In the first round of the ITA Kick Off in Fort Worth, Texas, the Harvard men’s tennis team was shut out, 4-0, at the hands of Oklahoma State. The No. 32 Crimson (2-1, 0-0 Ivy) fell to the No. 28 Cowboys (4-0) and only won one set in the team’s first road action of 2016.

Coming off back-to-back victories over William & Mary and Boston College, Harvard was unable to match the level of success it had at home to begin the season.

“It was our first [match] outdoors after playing most of the end of the fall indoors,” sophomore Kenny Tao said. “It was a tough adjustment for most of our players.”

The Crimson is typically more of an indoors team, so the quick change to playing outdoors was a complicating factor for Harvard.

“When you have wind, when it’s cold outside, when the balls are just bouncing really slow, it’s tough to play the same style,” Tao said.

The doubles pairing of junior Sebastian Beltrame and Tao came the closest to winning a match for the Crimson. After a back-and-forth battle with sophomore Temur Ismailov and junior Lucas Gerch, Harvard’s second doubles duo was defeated, 7-5.

Aside from second doubles, the Crimson struggled in its other matchups against Oklahoma State. The two teams’ differing styles of play were a factor, as the Cowboys were able to slowly wear down a more aggressive Harvard team.

“Our team is made up of mostly attacking players, so sometimes when we play teams that are more scrappy and gritty, they’re able to extend the points against us when we’re trying to play shorter points,” senior Nicky Hu said.

Of the five matches that finished, the Crimson lost each and did not win a single set.

At second singles, Oklahoma State junior Arjun Kadhe defeated junior Brian Yeung, 6-1, 6-2.

Beltrame had a close battle with Cowboys sophomore Julian Cash in their first set, but he ended up dropping the decision, 7-5. In the second set, Cash pulled away early and earned a 6-1 victory. Gerch, meanwhile, defeated Tao in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4.

At first doubles, the Cowboys duo of Cash and Kadhe bested Harvard’s team of Hu and Yeung, 6-3.

Despite the two teams being ranked closely, Oklahoma State managed to earn a convincing win by drawing out points and making sure Harvard players could not play their typical fast-paced, aggressive style.

“Oklahoma State has historically always had a really great team,” Hu said. “They just built a great new indoor facility, so they’ve gotten some great recruits over the last couple of years. We knew they were going to be a very tough team.”

Of the four matches that did not finish, two were closely contested by Crimson players.

At first singles, Hu managed to take the opening set from Ismailov, 6-2. In the second set, Ismailov rallied to earn a close victory and tie the match, 6-4.

The matchup between Cowboys sophomore Tristan Meraut and Harvard freshman Andy Zhou was possibly the most closely-contested of the day. The two battled to a 6-6 tie in the first set, and Meraut went on to win the tiebreaker and the set.

In doubles action, Crimson seniors Conor Haughey and Kelvin Lam were winning the first set, 6-5, against Oklahoma State sophomore Lukas Finzelberg and junior Jurence Mendoza, but the set went unfinished.

Although the results on paper were disappointing for Harvard, the team came away from the matches with some positives.

“I think on the positive side we found a lot of things we need to work on, and that’s always good to have and good to keep in the back of your mind because we’re looking to be the best team we can be at the end of the season,” Hu said.

–Staff writer Jack Stockless can be reached at jackstockless@college.harvard.edu.