Men's tennis splits Ivy weekend matches

After getting virtually all of the breaks to go its way en route to two straight Ivy League titles, the men’s tennis team continued to struggle to catch some breaks this season, falling 5-2 to No. 50 Princeton at the start of the weekend. However, they rebounded to beat Penn 5-2 on Sunday. Against Princeton, sophomore John Yetimoglu had two match points that would have put Columbia one point away from its biggest win of the year, but his opponent held them off and clinched the win for Princeton.

Despite the weekend split, head coach Bid Goswami was encouraged by his team’s showing.

“I thought we played the last four matches really well,” Goswami said. “If we had played like this from the beginning we would have had a lot more wins.”

The Lions, in their first outdoor match since spring break, took the doubles point against the Tigers, winning at No. 1 and No. 3. Goswami changed the doubles lineup, splitting up the Bucher brothers and juniors Rajeev Deb-Sen and Haig Schneiderman.

Princeton, however, would rebound quickly in the singles matches. Sophomore Matija Pecotic, the presumptive Ivy League Player of the Year, beat Schneiderman 6-4, 6-2 at No. 1, and sophomore Nate Gery fell in three sets at No. 2 singles. Sophomore Cyril Bucher lost 6-0, 6-3 to Matt Siow, a player he beat 7-5 in the third set last year, and junior Rajeev Deb-Sen lost 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 at No. 6. Freshman Tizian Bucher won 6-4, 6-3 at No. 5 singles, but the closest match of the day came at No. 3 singles. Yetimoglu lost the first set 6-3, but won the second 7-3 in a tiebreak. The final set went to a tiebreak, where Yetimoglu had two match points, but freshman Augie Bloom held his nerve and eventually won it 9-7.

“I thought we played really well, considering that it was a tough day, cold and a little breezy, about 50 degrees outside,” Goswami said. “I was really encouraged. We played good doubles and won the doubles point finally, and John held two match points against the guy who is probably going to be the rookie of the year, and he played good tennis, the guy just beat him. I was very encouraged, unfortunately we came up short.”

Columbia rebounded against Penn, sweeping the doubles. In singles, Gery was the first one off the court, routing Ivan Turdic 7-5, 6-0. Senior Kevin Kung was the next to finish, beating Phil Law 6-2, 6-4 with an aggressive backcourt game for his first singles win of Ivy play. Schneiderman fell in a tough match at No. 1 singles to senior Hicham Laalej, 6-2, 6-2. The second set turned on a controversial line call Laalej made on Schneiderman’s serve. Tizian Bucher sealed the win for Columbia with a 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 5 singles, and Rajeev Deb-Sen won his match at No. 6 in a third set super tie break that was played instead of a full third set.

“I think we played pretty good doubles, and this is the same doubles lineup that beat Harvard in all three matches,” Goswami said of Penn. “So it’s been a crazy season, almost all 4-3 matches. I thought we played as well as we thought we could.”

Columbia will close out its season on Sunday when it hosts the already crowned Ivy champion, Cornell, who will be looking to go 7-0 in conference play.