In Florida over Spring Break, the men's tennis team faced off against Florida Atlantic University on Thursday and No. 67 New Mexico State University on Saturday. The Bears lost a close match - in which all of the singles matches went to three sets - by a score of 6-1 to FAU, then fell to New Mexico State, 4-3, in another close match.
"Both matches were over four-and-a-half hours, grueling battles that will really help us prepare for some tough Ivy League matches," said Head Coach Jay Harris. "In the last two matches, we've had to deal with a lot of pressure and tough situations, and the guys have really pushed through and dealt with them pretty well."
Brown battled the University of Portland and No. 25 Wake Forest University at home the previous weekend. On Saturday, the Bears defeated the Pilots, 4-3, before narrowly dropping another 4-3 decision to the Demon Deacons the next day.
"We don't get too many chances to play ranked teams," said Kendrick Au '11, "and I think the urgency to improve and step up against these good teams was evident in how we all fought to the end in each match."
Brown 4, Portland 3
Against the Pilots at home, the Bears won two of the three doubles matches to jump out to a 1-0 lead. Though co-captains Noah Gardner '09 and Sam Garland '09 dropped an 8-5 match at first doubles, the second doubles pairing of captain Chris Lee '09 and Jonathan Pearlman '11 and the third doubles pairing of Au and Charlie Posner '11 earned 8-5 victories to clinch the doubles point.
The point would prove crucial as the teams went on to split the singles matches. At second singles, Pearlman soundly defeated Joel Kincaid, 6-1, 6-4. Skate Gorham '10 overpowered Nikoloz Kurdadze at third singles by a score of 6-1, 6-2, and Garland trounced Geoff Hernandez at fourth singles by a score of 6-1, 6-0.
"The eight active guys that we have contain the ability to play exceptionally well on any given day," Au said.
Lee and Au dropped their respective matches at first and sixth singles to Filip Zivkovic and Evan Schleining, and Gardner retired from the fifth singles match after splitting sets with Bryan Thorp.
Wake Forest 4, Brown 3
The following day, the Bears edged out the Demon Deacons in doubles play. In the first doubles match, Garland and Gardner fell to the No. 1-ranked doubles team in the nation, Cory Parr and Steven Forman, by a score of 8-5. At second doubles, Lee and Pearlman battled back from being down match point to defeat Jonathan Wolff and David Hopkins, 9-8 (1).
"Jon and Chris remain undefeated," Harris said. "The doubles was solid there."
Au and Posner were also one point away from losing the third doubles match but rebounded to record a 9-8 (7) victory over Jason Morgenstern and Andrew Brasseaux.
"Kendrick played great the whole weekend," Harris said.
The Bears faced a harder time in singles play. At first singles, Pearlman fell to No. 26-ranked Parr by a score of 6-2, 7-5 to even up the match score at 1-1. Lee gave Brown back the lead with a win at second singles, outlasting Forman, 6-4, 6-7 (10), 7-5.
Gorham and Garland lost close three-set matches at third and fourth singles, respectively. Gorham fell in a third-set tie-breaker to Wolff for a final score of 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5), and Garland dropped his match by a score of 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
The Demon Deacons clinched the match with a straight-set win over Posner at sixth singles. Au earned a three-set victory over David Hopkins at fifth singles to make the final match score 4-3.
"I, like all the guys on the team, have been progressively playing well, which will hopefully translate in all of us reaching our peak come the start of this weekend," Au said. "Our team looks great heading into the Ivies. The combination of the improvement in each individual's game and the added cohesiveness to our team that these tight matches have brought have prepared us for the great conference battle ahead."
Florida Atlantic 6, Brown 1
The final score did not reflect how close the Bears and Owls were in both doubles and singles. At first doubles, Lee and Pearlman upset the No. 63-ranked doubles duo of Eddie Majcher and Marc Abdelnour, 8-7 (4). But the Bears surrendered the doubles point, dropping the second and third doubles matches by respective scores of 8-5 and 8-2.
All of the singles matches went to three sets. The Bears only came away with one singles victory, but according to Garland, "with a little luck on some big points and a few more big shots, we could have beaten FAU by the same score they beat us, 6-1."
At first singles, Pearlman lost to No. 98-ranked Abdelnour, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. Lee dropped a close 7-6 (6), 5-7, 12-10 match at second singles to Daniel Vardag, and Gorham dropped the third singles match to Lawrence Harradine by a score of 2-6, 6-3, 6-0.
Garland notched the only singles victory of the day, defeating Joshua Scholl at fourth singles, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4. At fifth singles, Au fell to Majcher, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4, and at sixth singles, Jimmy Crystal '12 lost to Santiago Nieto by a score of 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
New Mexico State 4, Brown 3
Facing close matches again in doubles, the Bears prevailed with wins at the first and second spots. Gardner and Garland led the way at first doubles, defeating Roman Stoisavljevic and Eduardo Sales, 8-6, while at second doubles, Lee and Pearlman edged out Arthur Surreaux and Jim Brouleau, 9-8 (4). At third doubles, Au and Posner dropped a 9-7 match to Gustave Diep and Stefan McKinney.
"Against New Mexico State, a stronger team than FAU, we came out and played a great doubles point," Garland said.
Au kicked off singles play with a quick win at sixth singles, overpowering McKinney, 6-0, 6-4, to give Brown a 2-0 lead.
"After Kendrick lost at No. 3 doubles, he came out on fire in his singles match because of that," Harris said. "He kind of had something to prove. He won the first set in about 12 minutes and won the second in 40."
The Bears ultimately came up short by one match in singles play. Gorham and Gardner lost straight-set matches at third and fifth singles, respectively, to even the score at 2-2.
Lee fell, 6-4, 6-4, to Diep at second singles, "after fighting extremely hard," Garland said.
At fourth singles, Garland dropped the first set, 6-4, to Surreaux, then battled back to take the second set, 6-3, but fell in the third set, 3-6.
Pearlman outlasted Brouleau in three sets at first singles by a score of 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, for a final score of 4-3.
"During the spring break trip, although as a team we went 0-2, we played two tough teams and grew individually through the hardships of losing close ones," Garland said.
The Bears will begin Ivy play at home this weekend. Brown will face Penn on Friday at 2 p.m, and Princeton on Saturday at 2 p.m.
"I'm expecting us to play really well because of the preparation we've had with the matches over spring break," Harris said.
