The men's tennis team set up a showdown for the Ivy League title next week by winning both of its weekend matches. On Friday, the Bears defeated Cornell 6-1, and on Saturday, they pulled out a close 4-3 victory over Columbia, which came down to a three-set win by Sam Garland '09.
"He saved our season," said Basu Ratnam '09 of Garland, whose victory gave Brown the match needed to move into second place in the Ivy League standings, tied with Yale behind the University of Pennsylvania.
Before facing Columbia, however, the Bears needed to defeat Cornell, which also had one loss going into the competition. The match began with a close fight for the doubles point. Co-captain Phil Charm '06 and Chris Lee '09 dropped the first doubles match 8-2 to the No. 53 team of Nick Brunner and Josh Raff, while the Big Red led the second and third doubles matches 7-6. But the second doubles duo of Dan Hanegby '07 and Saurabh Kohli '08, and the third doubles duo of Garland and Eric Thomas '07 fought back to take their matches 9-7 to give the Bears the doubles point.
"That set the tone for singles," Thomas said. "Winning a close one defeats the other team."
Singles play started off with wins at the sixth and second spots to bring the total match score to 3-0. At sixth, co-captain Luke Tedaldi '06 easily defeated Rory Heggie 6-1, 6-3, and at second, Ratnam triumphed 6-4, 6-2 over Raff.
Hanegby lost the first singles match 6-4, 6-1 to Brett McKeon to make the team score 3-1, but at fifth singles, Lee defeated Kyle Doppelt 6-4, 7-5 to give Brown the final victory it needed to take the match.
Three-set victories followed at fourth singles, as Kohli won a 1-6, 7-6, 6-2 match over Dan Brous, and, as Thomas defeated Brunner 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 at third singles.
"I told the guys two things afterwards," said Head Coach Jay Harris. "There is no team tougher than us in the league, and no matter where we are in the match, whether we're up or down, I feel comfortable with these guys."
Against Columbia, the Bears immediately went up by sweeping the doubles matches - marking only the second time Columbia has lost the doubles point all season. At first doubles, Charm and Lee defeated Jimmy Moore and Martin Moore 8-4, and at second doubles, Hanegby and Kohli defeated Paul Ratchford and Scott Robbin 8-5. Meanwhile, Thomas and Garland destroyed Jared Drucker and Dan Urban 8-0 at third doubles.
"The guys played very solid, very sharp," Harris said.
The doubles point later proved crucial when the Bears and the Lions split the singles matches. "Singles was a battle," Thomas said.
After a straight-set loss by Lee at fifth singles, the match was tied at 1-1. But at second singles, Ratnam defeated Jimmy Moore 6-3, 6-3, and Thomas defeated Ratchford 7-6 (6), 6-1 at third singles to bring the match score to 3-1. With just one more singles victory needed, Hanegby dropped a close match at the first spot 7-5, 6-4 to Mark Clemente.
Meanwhile, the two remaining matches at fourth and sixth singles were pushed to three sets. After Kohli ultimately dropped the fourth singles match 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to Martin Moore to tie the score at 3-3, everything rested on Garland's match against Urban at sixth singles.
Garland easily won the first set 6-1, but Urban managed to pull out a 6-4 score in the second set. "I started off really well," Garland said. "But the wind was a big factor, and I lost my concentration in the second set."
At the start of the third set, Garland was down 4-2, but he battled back to take a 5-4 lead. With an excited crowd egging on both players, Urban broke Garland to tie the score at 5-5, but Garland held serve and then broke Urban for a final score of 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.
"I was so nervous," Garland said. "But hearing the Bruno cheers made me happy."
The Bears will next face Dartmouth on Friday and Harvard on Sunday, and they need to win both matches in order to stay in the running for the Ivy League title.
"No one can win it with two losses," Garland said.
While Dartmouth is so far winless in the Ivy League, the Bears consider Harvard a serious rival. In fact, Harvard's 5-2 win over Penn on Friday helped put Brown back into position to vie for the Ivy League title.
But according to Garland, improvement is not the only thing the team needs. "We need fans," he said. "Harvard is in our house. This is definitely the most exciting match of the year."
