The men’s tennis team fell to Cornell 4-2 and to Penn 4-3 in two tight matches in the ECAC Championships this weekend. Bruno played as the fifth seed in the tournament, hosted by Dartmouth.
The competition included all Ivy League teams except for Yale. Brown’s narrow losses “came down to one set for both matches,” Justin To ’15 said.
Sam Fife ’14 tallied Bruno’s only individual win against the Big Red. The Bears picked up another point with doubles wins from the pairings of To and Lucas Da Silveira ’16 and Dan Hirschberg ’15 and Gregory Garcia ’17. Garcia, Hirschberg and To all won individually Sunday to give the Bears three points against the Quakers.
The women’s team won its only match of the weekend Sunday, defeating SUNY Stony Brook 5-2. Hannah Camhi ’16, a Herald staff writer, Nikita Uberoi ’15, Sarah Kandath ’15 and Ammu Mandalap ’16 all won individual matches. Bruno swept the doubles matches, with pairs of Dayna Lord ’17 and Camhi, Uberoi and Kandath and Mandalap and Ashley Noyes ’16 all defeating their Seawolf opponents.
Co-captain David Neff ’14 said the men’s team was coming into the weekend with three good wins, but that Bruno had a slow start in singles this weekend. Nonetheless, Neff said Garcia “had a very good weekend.” Garcia played at number three for doubles and at number four for singles matches Saturday. He played from the number three spot in both singles and doubles Sunday. Though Garcia won all his matches, one did not count because Cornell (5-3) had already tallied four wins.
To also had a good weekend, bringing home wins for Brown from the top position in both singles and doubles. To said “confidence played a big factor” in his singles win. After being sidelined for quite some time due to injuries, To has gained more confidence from recent victories. He said these wins have been critical for him to believe that he belongs in the number one singles spot after so much time off.
Da Silveira said he and To “pulled off a really good win” against Cornell’s doubles team, ranked 34th in the country. The match went into a tiebreaker, but the two clinched the doubles point for Bruno. “Justin and I have proved ourselves a lot,” Da Silveira said, adding that the duo’s strength lies in keeping their opponents guessing.
Though Da Silveira said the two are consistent in their play, he admitted they both need to work on returns. As for the team performance against Penn (1-3), Da Silveira said he thought Bruno looked “like we were a little flat.” He said he believed that if the Bears had played the way they did against Cornell, they would have beaten Penn.
To said the team lost big points at important moments. “We got a little unlucky,” he said.
Neff said the team is “going to have to take it up another level” to beat out its Ivy League opponents in April.
Bruno will take this Ivy League experience into its next match Tuesday against Boston University.
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