The men's tennis team made history Wednesday afternoon by defeating Yale 4-3 to claim a share of the Ivy League title. The title is the third in the program's existence, and all three have come since 2002.
"This is the first time in the history of the program that the team has won back-to-back Ivy titles," said Head Coach Jay Harris. The victory also marks the first time the team has remained undefeated at home for a season, which Harris called "a huge point of pride."
The Bears finished their conference season with a 6-1 record, identical to the University of Pennsylvania's. Because the two squads finished with matching records, the teams will share the title. The Bears barely lost to Penn 4-3 at the beginning of the season, but on Sunday they will travel to Philadelphia for a rematch that will decide which team will advance to the NCAA Tournament.
"We're a different team than we were three weeks ago," Harris said. "We've grown a lot over the Ivy season."
The growth was apparent from the start of Wednesday's match. It took just 45 minutes for the Bears to destroy the Bulldogs in doubles play. At first doubles, co-captain Phil Charm '06 and Chris Lee '09 dominated Rory Green and Rowan Reynolds, cruising to an 8-2 victory.
Dan Hanegby '07 and Saurabh Kohli '08 had a similarly easy time at second doubles, defeating Brandon Wai and Michael Caldwell 8-3, while Eric Thomas '07 and Sam Garland '09 defeated Milosz Gudzowski and Chris Lawler 8-2 at third doubles.
"Yale is very tough," Charm said. "To win the three doubles matches that quickly was great."
Though everything had gone as planned for the Bears during the doubles matches, they had to make adjustments on the fly from the start of singles play. After deciding Lee was too injured to compete, Brown was forced to re-shuffle its lineup minutes before play began. Against Columbia two weeks ago, Lee injured his hip, and, though somewhat compensating for that problem yesterday, he developed a groin injury that prevented him from continuing. He had planned to play at fifth singles, with co-captain Luke Tedaldi '06 playing sixth. Instead, Tedaldi shifted to fifth singles, while Garland took over the sixth position.
"That showed how much of a team we are," Harris said.
Brown shook off the uncertainty immediately, however, and stretched its lead to 2-0 when Thomas won the third singles match 6-4, 6-1. But after Basu Ratnam '09 lost 6-2, 6-0 to Gudzowski at second singles, the match got a bit tighter.
Tedaldi gave the Bears a crucial win at fifth singles, defeating Green 6-4, 6-3. Seconds later, Garland finished his 6-1, 7-6 (2) defeat of Reynolds, and the Bears were Ivy League co-champions.
Garland was unaware his win had clinched the title until his excited teammates ran onto the court hugging each other. "It was a fun experience, especially being a surprise," he said.
Kohli and Hanegby lost the remaining singles matches in close third-set tiebreakers, but, since the Bears had already won the title, the team was exuberant. Charm and Tedaldi drenched Harris in champagne, and, luckily, there was enough bubbly left for Harris to lead a toast to "the entire Bruno family."
Afterwards, the Bears poured coolers over the heads of Harris and Assistant Coach Jamie Gresh. Harris said when the Bears won the title last year, he saw the shadows of the players behind him and dodged the cooler in time for Kohli to be doused instead. This time, the Bears made sure to soak the right man.
Overall, Tedaldi and Charm finished their last Ivy season extremely pleased. "This win shows how much the team has grown the entire year," Tedaldi said. "We were 1-1 in the Ivies, and then we won five straight matches. I'm really proud."
Charm agreed. "It's amazing," he said. "We've accomplished what no other Bruno team has done."
