This past weekend's ECAC Champion-ships were yet another opportunity for the men's tennis team to show off its might. During the four-day tournament, held at the site of the U.S. Open in Flushing, N.Y., the second-seeded Bears decisively beat Rutgers University, Cornell and Harvard before falling to fourth-seeded University of Pennsylvania in the championship match for a second place finish.
"It was a positive team effort," said Scott Blumenkranz '08. "Even though there were a few minor setbacks, it was a good learning experience. I think this will serve as a good springboard into the spring season."
The Bears were in control from the start in the opening three rounds. In its opening match against Rutgers, Brown overpowered the Scarlet Knights 5-2 with two doubles victories and four wins in singles.
Co-captain Phil Charm '06 and Dan Hanegby '07 paired up for the team's first doubles victory, an impressive 8-1 victory over Tyler Deming and Gordie Milchutsky. Blumenkranz and Sam Garland '09 followed with an 8-5 win over Gabe Adams and Arjun Vaidya at third doubles to give Brown the doubles point.
Singles play against Rutgers featured a pair of close matches that didn't bounce Brown's way. Playing first singles, Hanegby lost a riveting three-set match to Deming, 7-5, 5-7, 1-0 (5), and at fifth singles, Mike Scherer '08 also lost in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (7).
The rest of the Bears encountered little resistance from the Scarlet Knights, taking all four of their singles matches in straight sets. At second singles, Eric Thomas '07 defeated Milchutsky, 6-4, 6-1. At third, Charm overpowered Matthew Fawcett, 6-1, 6-1. Saurabh Kohli '08 had a solid, 6-2, 6-2, win over Vaidya in the fourth singles match, and co-captain Luke Tedaldi '06 finished things up by defeating Adams, 6-3, 6-2.
The team's next victory was another 5-2 triumph, coming in the quarterfinals against Cornell. In doubles, Blumenkranz and Garland defeated Brett McKeon and Ray Wu 8-5 for the team's only doubles win. But the Bears more than made up for their lost doubles point by winning a remarkable five of six singles matches.
At first singles, Hanegby defeated McKeon, 7-5, 6-4, while Thomas followed suit with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Nick Brunner. Charm barely lost his third singles match to Josh Raff, in the end winning two more games than his opponent in a 7-6 (5), 2-6, 1-0 (8) defeat. At fourth and fifth singles, Kohli and Scherer soundly defeated their opponents in straight sets, as Kohli defeated Dan Brous, 6-2, 6-4 and Scherer defeated Tongle Yu, 6-2, 6-2. Sixth singles was another tight match, but this time, the three-set victory went to the Bears as Tedaldi triumphed over Peter Kung, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (5).
Next, the Bears faced Harvard in the semifinals. Harvard had revenge on its mind as Brown had clinched a share of last year's Ivy League title in a victory over the Crimson. But Brown was still able to come away with a 4-3 victory.
"Our best match was against Harvard," said Assistant Coach Jamie Gresh.
The Bears snared the doubles point with wins at first doubles, as Charm and Hanegby defeated Sasha Ermakov and Ashwin Kumar, 8-4, and at second doubles, as Kohli and Thomas defeated Scott Denenberg and Brandon Chiu, 8-6.
Winning the doubles point turned out to be crucial, as the Bears and Crimson split the singles matches with three victories apiece. Hanegby was triumphant at first singles, winning his match against Kumar, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3. At third singles, Charm defeated Chris Clayton, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, and giving the team the point it needed for the overall victory against Harvard, Kohli downed Dan Nguyen, 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth singles match.
In the championship match, the Bears faced Penn. Encountering its first true roadblock of the day, Brown put up a valiant effort but lost 4-1. The Quakers claimed the doubles point with wins at both first and second doubles with a pair of 8-3 wins over Charm and Hanegby and Kohli and Thomas, respectively. The Bears put forth solid efforts at singles to get back in it, but Penn was able to win at second, third and fourth singles to claim first place overall. Charm and Kohli suffered a pair of three-set losses and third and fourth singles, respectively, to make things extremely close.
Despite falling to the Quakers, the Bears were still upbeat about their strong performance at the tournament.
"Penn outfought us," Tedaldi said, but overall "it was a good weekend."
"We did not play to that level (of the Harvard match) today," Gresh added. "We just didn't play our best."
The Bears head next to the ITA Regional Championships, which will be held Oct. 21-26 in Hanover, N.H. The players anticipate the upcoming tournament as another opportunity to prove their skills in the face of tough competition.
"Right now, our level (of play) is good," Gresh said.
