The men's tennis team opened its spring season with a bang Saturday, giving up just one team point during its double-header against Boston College and University at Buffalo. After overpowering BC 6-1 in the morning, the win-hungry Bears devoured Buffalo 7-0 in the afternoon.
"The guys were putting out a lot of energy," said Assistant Coach Jamie Gresh.
Despite dropping one match in doubles play against BC, Brown grabbed the point. The first doubles team of co-captain Phil Charm '06 and Dan Hanegby '07 and the third doubles team of Eric Thomas '07 and Sam Garland '09 defeated their opponents by respective scores of 8-2 and 8-4. Saurabh Kohli '08 and Basudev Ratnam '09, however, did not follow suit, losing the second doubles match 8-4 to Jason Sechrist and Brian Hartness, but Brown already had the two doubles wins it needed to take the point.
"We weren't expecting to be perfect," Charm said, "But when we compete hard and work hard, we get the results we want."
The Bears lost their only team point of the day during singles play against the Eagles. Hanegby played an extremely close match against Soma Kesthley in first singles, losing the first set tiebreaker, winning the second set tiebreaker and ultimately giving up the third set breaker for a final score of 7-6 (7), 6-7 (5), 0-1(2).
"It was a pretty even match," Gresh said. "Dan wasn't playing his best level of tennis, but (Kesthley) also raised his game."
After the disappointing defeat, the Bears rallied and never looked back. They took the rest of their singles matches against BC in straight sets. Thomas and Charm triumphed at second and third singles respectively. At fourth and fifth singles, Kohli and Chris Lee '09 had matching 6-4, 6-3 victories, while co-captain Luke Tedaldi '06 won the sixth singles match 6-3, 6-3.
The Bears played a total of nine matches and they won seven of those in defeating the Eagles. Despite their impressive showing in the morning, however, there were still nine more matches to come against Buffalo in the afternoon.
Tedaldi conceded that it was "mentally and physically draining" at times, but "we just had to stay tough." The Bears did just that, coming back even stronger in the afternoon, winning every one of their matches against Buffalo.
According to Gresh, a big component of this weekend's victories was the Bears' improved doubles play since the fall season. At first doubles, Kohli and Lee earned an 8-2 victory over Yules Hadisubroto and Nikesh Singh Panthlia, while Thomas and Scott Blumenkranz '08 took the second doubles match against Mike Rockman and Albert Alant by the same score. At third doubles, Tedaldi and Ratnam defeated Matthew Kennedy and Fred Duncan 8-4.
The singles victories were even more resounding. Hanegby won his match against Rockman at first singles 6-3, 6-0. Charm, Ratnam and Tedaldi all posted 6-2, 6-2 wins at second, third and fourth singles. Garland was the only Bear to drop a set, losing the second set of fifth singles. He compensated, however, taking the third set breaker for a score of 6-2, 6-7, 1-0. Noah Gardner '09 finished off the Bears' shutout by winning the sixth singles match 6-1, 7-6 (4).
Tedaldi said that gaining match experience is key. "Early on in the season, our main goal is to get as many matches in as possible. Being such a young team, experience is our main issue. It's up to the older guys to show the younger guys the ropes."
The Bears will play again this weekend, traveling to N.Y. to face No. 27 Clemson University on Saturday and Army on Sunday. "This match is very big for us," Charm said. "Clemson is ranked extremely high, and this is a great opportunity for us to show the rest of the country what we can do."
