Last week was "Tennis Week" in Alabama, and the men's tennis team was a part of it, competing in the Blue/Gray Tennis Classic. No. 53 Brown fell 4-2 to No. 32 Boise State University in the first round on Thursday before losing by the same score to No. 73 Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi on Friday and the No. 33 University of South Alabama in the consolation round on Sunday.
"We played good doubles, but we needed to play more intensely in singles," said Assistant Coach Jamie Gresh.
After rain delayed Thursday's match against Boise State, the players jumped straight into singles play. The doubles matches, usually played first, would only be played if the Bears and the Broncos were tied with three singles victories each.
But Boise State took the four singles victories it needed to win the match, making doubles play unnecessary. Co-captain Phil Charm '06, Saurabh Kohli '08 and Chris Lee '09 dropped their matches in straight sets at second, fifth and sixth singles, and Eric Thomas '07 lost his match at third singles, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, to Clancy Shields.
Brown did, however, get a great performance at first singles from No. 70 Dan Hanegby '07, who faced off against the other Shields brother, No. 23 Luke. Despite the difference in ranks between the two, Hanegby defeated Shields in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
The Bears' other singles victory came at fourth singles, as Basu Ratnam '09 overpowered Steve Robertson 6-3, 6-1.
"We messed up towards the end," Kohli said. "We lost some crucial points. We didn't close the match."
The next day, the Bears faced Texas A&M Corpus Christi in the consolation round. The match started with promise, as Brown took the doubles point. The Bears' second doubles pair of Hanegby and Kohli and the third doubles pair of Thomas and Sam Garland '09 soundly defeated their opponents 8-4.
In singles play, however, the Islanders pulled out four wins to take the match. At first singles, Hanegby fell to No. 43 Raul Morant-Rivas 6-2, 6-4. Charm also lost to a ranked player, dropping his match at second singles 6-3, 6-2 to No. 125 Andrey Kumantsov.
The third and fourth singles matches were pushed to three sets, but Thomas and Ratnam both lost their third sets 6-2 to give the Islanders the match. The only singles win was a 6-3, 6-2 victory by Kohli at fifth singles.
The Bears lost their last match of the tournament to South Alabama, again by a score of 4-2. The doubles point went to Brown, with Charm and Lee taking the first doubles match 8-5 and Thomas and Garland powering by their opponents 8-1 at third doubles.
But the doubles point again proved insufficient, as the Jaguars won four of the singles matches. Hanegby gave up the first singles match 6-3, 6-4 to Monte Tucker, and Charm dropped the second singles match 7-5, 6-2 to No. 94 Jack Baker.
Thomas found himself in a familiar position during his three-set match at third singles, but this time he emerged with the win, taking the tiebreaker set 6-2. The fourth and fifth singles matches were also extended to three sets, but Kohli and Lee ultimately fell.
"All the matches we lost were really close," Kohli said. "We planned the points well, but we didn't execute them as well as we would have liked."
Getting right back into the swing of things, the Bears will play three southern opponents over spring break. Sunday, they travel to Richmond, Va., to play No. 26 Virginia Commonwealth University, a finalist in the Blue/Gray Classic. Following that, they will face No. 22 North Carolina State University and No. 31 Wake Forest University on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
According to Gresh, the team needs to work on its transitions from the baseline to the net and focus on coming to the net more. "We need to stay more aggressive," he said.
