For the men's tennis team, one win is never enough - and neither are two. After No. 43 Brown dominated No. 44 Virginia Tech with a 5-2 victory on Sunday, the Bears came back on Monday with a 7-0 shutout over Lafayette College in the morning and a 7-0 shutout over Marist College in the afternoon.
"We came out with a lot of energy," said Chris Lee '09 of the team's three wins. "It was a good collective effort."
Sunday's match against Virginia Tech began with a grueling duel for the doubles point. Although co-captain Phil Charm '06 and Dan Hanegby '07, ranked 50th in the country together, easily took the first doubles match 8-3, the third doubles pair of Lee and Saurabh Kohli '08 lost its match 8-6. With all the pressure resting on second doubles, Eric Thomas '07 and Sam Garland '09 stayed strong, winning a close match with an ace from Garland for a score of 9-8 (5).
"All that momentum turned around the entire match," Thomas said of the doubles victory.
Singles action brought even more excitement, as four of the six singles matches were pushed to three sets. At first and second singles, No. 68 Hanegby and Thomas prevailed over Albert Larregola and Alexei Sergeev by respective scores of 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-4 and 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. The Hokies' David Rosenfeld defeated Charm 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in another three-setter at third singles. The Bears' only other loss came at fourth singles, as Kohli dropped his match 6-1, 7-5 to Nicolas Delgado.
But the Bears emerged triumphant in the two remaining singles matches. Basu Ratnam '09 had a sound victory at fifth singles, winning his match 6-3, 6-4 against Brandon Corace. Meanwhile, co-captain Luke Tedaldi '06 defeated Brent Wilkins in a gripping sixth singles match, as every set in the 6-7, 7-6, 1-0 (8) win was determined by a tiebreaker.
"The guys call him 'Houdini' for saving so many match and set points," said Head Coach Jay Harris.
By the time Tedaldi's match was finished, the players had spent over five hours competing - but Monday morning found them back on the courts for two more matches. "(Monday) was a good test for us," Thomas said. "We were able to come out after a day of hard tennis for another day of hard tennis. And we were very successful."
The Bears' only loss of the day came during doubles play against Lafayette. Garland and Scott Blumenkranz '08 dropped a close second doubles match 8-6, but the first doubles duo of Thomas and Charm and the third doubles duo of Tedaldi and Noah Gardner '09 had solid 8-1 and 8-6 wins, giving the Bears the doubles point.
"We came out with a little less energy in the beginning," Harris said. "It's not always easy to play that much."
The Bears were flawless during singles play, easily taking every match in straight sets. The closest match-up came at first singles, as Hanegby defeated Andrew Mott 6-3, 7-5. Every other singles set was won by a score no closer than 6-4.
"The guys off the court did a good job energizing the guys on the court (during the Lafayette match)," Lee said.
The energy continued that afternoon against Marist. This time, the Bears won every one of their doubles matches. Hanegby and Kohli took the first doubles match 8-5, Lee and Garland took the second doubles match 8-6 and Thomas and Blumenkranz took the third doubles match 8-3.
In singles, the Bears again won all of their matches in straight sets, although two of the matches required second-set tiebreakers. Straight-set victories went to Thomas, Charm, Lee and Tedaldi at first, second, fourth and sixth singles, respectively.
Although the second sets of the third and fifth singles matches were decided by tiebreakers, the scores of the tiebreakers were decisive. At third singles, Ratnam defeated Leonardo Rodriguez 6-1, 7-6 (1), and Garland defeated Ray Josephs 6-2, 7-6 (3) at fifth singles.
Overall, the Bears were impressed by the amount of improvement they displayed over the course of the three matches. "There was a lot of improvement in the young guys from a few weeks ago to now," Charm said.
Harris agreed. "This is the beginning of defining this group of guys. I'm really proud of them. They got a lot better this weekend in every area, and I'm very excited," he said.
The improvement will hopefully carry over to the Bears' next match, when they will host Michigan State University on March 4. "In terms of the last few weeks, we've had tough, intense practices," Charm said. "We're quicker and sharper."
