Men's Tennis Falls to Tulane

After dropping the doubles point in a nail-biter tiebreak at third doubles, it came down to two singles matches at the Murr Tennis Center on Friday. No. 33 Harvard men’s tennis (3-2) needed victories from both junior Brian Yeung at second singles and Andy Zhao at fifth singles to edge out No. 32 Tulane (4-1).

Both Yeung and Zhou managed to come back and battle into the third sets of their games after going down in the first set. In the deciding set, Yeung attempted to fight through sudden cramping, but ultimately Tulane sophomore Constantin Schmitz overpowered Yeung to take the match, 6-2, 6-7, 7-6. Though the Green Wave’s overall victory was already decided, Zhou finished his match and came out with a personal win.

“We really gave it our all at every position, no one stopped fighting,” co-captain Nicky Hu said. “Overall I’m proud of the guys, and there’s not much more we can ask for. Sometimes the points just don’t go our way.”

The day started with a close doubles lineup. Hu and Yeung fell to top-ranked Tulane senior Dominik Koepfer and junior Chi-Shan Jao, 6-3, at first doubles, while junior Sebastian Beltrame and sophomore Kenny Tao took home a 6-2 victory for the Crimson at second doubles.

In the decisive third doubles match, co-captain Conor Haughey and senior Kelvin Lam took on Schmitz and Tulane junior Sebastian Rey. In an extremely close back and forth, Haugey and Lam ultimately dropped the game in a tiebreak.

“We knew going into the match that Tulane was going to be a really tough team,” Hu said. “We went out with really good energy in doubles. They had a really good doubles lineup and our lineup is looking really solid right now too…. we lost in a real close one.”

Despite falling behind in the doubles competition, the Crimson came back with strong individual performances in the singles competition.

“It looked up and down our line that we had good energy, which is tough to do a lot of the time after losing a close double’s match like that,” Hu said. “I’m proud that the guys were able to rebound with positive energy there.”

At the number one spot, Hu took on Koepfer. In the Oracle/ITA’s first single’s poll of the 2016 season early this month, Koepfer became the first Green Wave player to take the title of the top single’s player in the country. Despite a strong effort from Hu, he fell 6-2, 6-4.

“He is a really, really good player so I didn’t really even give him a run for his money,” Hu said.

Beltrame battled through food poisoning to close out a tight tiebreaker win over his Tulane opponent, 7-6, 7-6 at third singles. At fourth singles, Tao delivered a smooth straight set win over Rey, 6-4, 6-2.

“Personally it was a good day because I lost my matches last week at TCU, so coming back, playing at home and getting a win in both double’s and single’s helped me restore my confidence a little bit,” the California native said.

Rounding out the ladder, Zhou took home the win at fifth singles while sophomore Grant Solomon fell to his opponent 6-3, 6-4 at sixth.

“Andy did a really good job of fighting through and trying to win the match even though it didn’t really matter,” Tao said.

With two more games this weekend, the team will have plenty of time to practice before facing Ivy League competition.

“We’re looking to really peak by the time we get to Ivy League season and NCAAs. That means maybe sacrificing some matches now because it takes some time to transition, so hopefully by the time NCAAs rolls around everyone will be playing the way they want to play,” Hu said.

–Staff writer Jamie Chen can be reached at jamiechen@college.harvard.edu.