BRIEF: Men's Tennis Captures Silver at ECAC Championships

The Harvard men’s tennis team traveled to New Haven, Conn., this weekend to face its first Ivy competition this season at the ECAC Championship tournament. Hosted by Yale, the tournament saw participation from seven of the eight Ivy institutions.

Hoping to bounce back from a 1-2 performance at the tournament last year, the Crimson (9-2) entered the tournament at the No. 2 seed. Facing off against No. 7 Brown on Friday, Harvard clinched a 4-1 victory to advance to the second round against Cornell on Saturday. The Crimson managed to top the Big Red 4-1, securing a spot in the finals against No. 1 seed Dartmouth (12-0) on Sunday.

Harvard’s win streak came to an end on that final day in the matchup against the Big Green. Although the team fell 4-1, its 2-1 performance this weekend marks a strong start to the season and displays the team’s competitiveness among the Ivy circuit.

HARVARD 1, DARTMOUTH 4

The ECAC finals this Sunday began with fierce competition. Dartmouth earned a doubles point early on with a win at third doubles over senior Grant Solomon and junior Christopher Morrow. The Crimson came back at first doubles, when senior Kenny Tao and sophomore Logan Weber resurged to clinch a 7-5 victory. The Big Green ultimately took the doubles point with a win at No. 2, defeating co-captain Jean Thirouin and junior Andy Zhou.

Going into singles, the Big Green claimed two straight singles points. Rookie Robert Wrzesinski fell to his opponent 6-2, 6-1 at fourth singles, before Thirouin suffered a loss at the hands of Dartmouth sophomore David Horneffer at third singles.

Zhou then earned Harvard the only point of the day with a straight set victory over his Big Green opponent freshman Dan Martin at second singles. The win was not enough, however, as Dartmouth sealed its victory on court five. In spite of pushing the match to an extra game in the second set, Solomon ultimately fell to his opponent 6-1, 7-5, to give Dartmouth the ECAC Championship title.

HARVARD 4, CORNELL 1

The Crimson took an early lead in doubles play with a win from Morrow and Solomon at third doubles. At second doubles, Thirouin and Zhou fell in close tiebreaker to their Big Red opponents. It came down to first doubles, where Tao and Weber earned the final match earning Harvard the doubles point after managing to hold off their opponents and clinch a 7-6 tiebreaker win.

The Crimson went on to dominate in singles play, sweeping the next three out of four points. Tao swept his Cornell opponent David Volfson in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 at first singles. Solomon then earned a critical tiebreaker win in the first set of his match before giving up the second set, but ultimately came back strong in the third set to give Harvard another point at fifth singles.

Wrzesinski fell to his Big Red opponent Daniel Grunberger 6-3, 6-3 at fourth singles, giving Cornell its first point of the day. In the game deciding match at sixth singles, junior Andrew Ball earned a tiebreaker win in the first set, but fell 3-6 in the second set to give Cornell a chance. He came back in the third set to clinch the win, giving Harvard the win and advancing the team to the finals.

HARVARD 4, BROWN 1

For only the second time this season, the Crimson struggled to secure the doubles point and gave the Bears an early 1-0 lead. Brown won both second and third doubles 6-3, canceling out an early advantage from Tao and Weber’s win at first singles.

Harvard came back strong in singles play, however. Tao defeated Brown senior Jack Haworth swiftly in two sets, 6-2, 6-1. Ball earned a straight-set win at sixth singles. At second singles, Zhou clinched a tiebreaker win in the first set and went on to sweep the second set 6-1 to give Harvard a 3-1 advantage.

The match came down to a nail-biter between Solomon and sophomore Peter Litsky. After falling 1-6 in the first set, Solomon came back to clinch the second set 7-5 and then sweep the third set 6-3, giving the Crimson its first win of the weekend.

—Staff writer Jamie Chen can be reached at jamie.chen@thecrimson.com.