Although the men's tennis team did not come away with the Northeast Regional crown this year, the Bears established themselves a formidable force in doubles competition. Over the weekend, Chris Lee '09 and Basu Ratnam '09 advanced to the semifinals of the ITA Northeast Regional Championships, while co-captain Noah Gardner '09 and Sam Garland '09 advanced to the quarterfinals.
"For the most part, it was a good showing," said Head Coach Jay Harris. "We played well and fought hard all through the tournament."
Lee and Ratnam, who were seeded fifth, began their run with a bye in the first round, and followed that with an easy second-round win over Bucknell University's Jon Brenner and Ryan Sandburg, who they defeated 8-4. In the third round, the Bears earned an 8-5 victory over Princeton foes Ryan Kim and Ilya Trubov to reach the quarterfinals.
Lee and Ratnam overpowered the unseeded Harvard duo of Chris Clayton and Will Guzick 8-3 in the quarterfinals, but in the semifinal match, the Bears fell by a score of 8-5 to Pennsylvania State University's Ryan Gormley and Brendan Lynch.
"(Gormley and Lynch) played the match of their lives," Lee said. "But we were playing at 50 percent of our abilities. We need to work on our consistency. We can't have those ups and downs."
Lee and Ratnam were joined in the doubles draw by Gardner and Garland, who advanced to the quarterfinals. The Bears demolished their first-round opponents, St. John's University's Pavel Cerny and Martin Kosut, 8-0, then took an 8-5 victory over fourth seeds Jeffrey Schnell and Kevin Walsh of Georgetown University in the second round.
In the third round, Gardner and Garland battled through a tight match against 14th seeds Dave Jackson and Irfan Shamasdin of University of Maryland-Baltimore County to triumph 9-8 (3). But the Bears were unable to do the same in the quarterfinals, where they dropped an 8-4 decision to Princeton's sixth-seeded pair of Peter Capkovic and Alex Vuckovic.
"Sam and I played very good doubles and came out really hot in most of our matches, so I'm very proud of that," Gardner said. "It's nice to know that we have a good deal of depth in the doubles lineup. Obviously, I think we missed a great opportunity to have at least one of our teams win the title, but to have all four guys from the class of '09 in the quarterfinals was really special."
Lee agreed that having his classmates in the quarterfinals with him was a great experience. "We've known each other forever, so having that on the last day was just unbelievable," he said. "We were on court next to each other, cheering each other on."
Co-captain Saurabh Kohli '08 and Skate Gorham '10 also competed in doubles, taking an 8-4 win in the first round over Eddie Kang and Sean Harris of the United States Military Academy. But the Bears dropped their following match to Columbia's seventh-seeded team of Bogden Borta and Justin Chow when Gorham landed wrong and tore his ACL.
"It was a major disappointment," Harris said. "Skate had an ankle injury before the tournament, but last week he got himself ready, and he was playing great."
Due to the injury, Gorham was unable to compete in singles, but Harris said that Gorham's injury provided motivation for his teammates. "It inspired the other guys for the rest of the weekend," he said. "Our guys stepped up because they wanted to do that for Skate."
Kohli and Jon Pearlman '11 were key examples of that inspiration, both advancing to the round of 16 in the singles draw. Kohli, who was the 14th seed, took a bye in the first round, then defeated University of Buffalo's Panthlia Nikesh Singh 6-1, 7-5 in the second round. He followed that victory with a three-set triumph over Niagara University's Garcia Walter by a final score of 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. But in the round of 16, Kohli faced the first seed, Michael James of Penn State, who defeated him 6-0, 6-2 and went on to win the title.
Meanwhile, Pearlman had strong victories of his own in his first time competing at Regionals. Pearlman overwhelmed Manhattan's Mihai Nichifor 6-2, 6-2 in the first round, then had an impressive 6-2, 6-4 win in the second round over the third seed, Penn State's Adam Slagter. Pearlman bounced back after dropping the first set of his third-round match 6-0 to UMBC's Nick Savage-Pollock, taking the next two sets 6-2, 6-1. In the round of 16, Pearlman got off to a strong start, edging out Dartmouth's Justin Tzou in a close 7-6 (4) first set. Unfortunately, Pearlman dropped the next two sets 6-4, 6-2.
"We were all really impressed with Jon," Lee said. "He played some three-set matches where he was fighting through cramping. We were proud of him."
Despite some success, the Bears were somewhat disappointed with their singles results. "Saurabh and Jon got some solid wins, but nobody played outstanding for a sustained period of time, which is always tough," Gardner said. "It would be nice to get someone into the quarterfinals at least, but there's no use in worrying about it. I think it's clear that we're a solid team. We just have to keep playing bigger and worrying less on the court."
Brown's final competition of the fall, the Big Green Invitational, will begin Saturday, Nov. 3. The tournament is hosted by Dartmouth, and the Bears will send three players to the competition.
"It's for the guys who didn't get a chance at Regionals so we're hoping they go up and take it seriously and give a good effort the whole time," Gardner said.
