The men's tennis team faced three ranked opponents over break to finish its non-league competition and came away with three tough losses. On March 26, the No. 63 Bears lost to No. 17 Virginia Commonwealth University 7-0, on March 29 the Bears suffered a 4-3 loss to No. 36 North Carolina State University and then a 5-2 loss to No. 25 Wake Forest University the following day.
"We fought hard," said Basu Ratnam '09. "Although we lost, it gave us confidence that we can play with any of these teams. We were close."
The Bears came away with one victory against VCU, but the 8-3 second doubles win by Dan Hanegby '07 and Saurabh Kohli '08 was not enough to give Brown the doubles point.
The Bears tried to make up for the lost point with singles wins, but they fell short in four close matches. "The score didn't reflect how close the match was," said Head Coach Jay Harris. "All those guys played really tight matches."
At first singles, No. 63 Hanegby dropped a 7-5, 7-5 match to No. 21 Arnaud Lecloerec, and at second singles, Eric Thomas '07 lost 7-6 (5), 6-3. Meanwhile, Kohli pushed No. 123 Francesc Lleal to three sets at third singles, eventually losing 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, and Ratnam barely lost the fourth singles match 7-6 (3), 3-6, 12-10.
"I had match points," Ratnam said of his narrow loss. "I was kind of disappointed."
Against N.C. State, the Bears again took only one of the doubles matches, this time a 9-7 victory by Thomas and Sam Garland '09 at third doubles, and lost the doubles point. Brown had been in position to take the first and second doubles matches, leading both 7-6, but the matches were ultimately lost 9-8 in tiebreakers.
"That was a little tough to swallow," Harris said.
Unfortunately, the lost doubles point proved to be the deciding factor of the match when singles play was split 3-3. Thomas and Chris Lee '09 took three-set victories at second and fifth singles, respectively, with Thomas defeating Val Banada 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 and Lee defeating Jay Weinacker 4-6, 7-6, 10-6. At third singles, Ratnam overpowered Andre Iriarte 6-4, 6-1.
In the Bears' last non-conference match of the season, they came away with just two victories over the Demon Deacons, but according to Harris, those wins were "big." At second singles, Ratnam defeated Andrew Hamar, ranked 69th in the country, by a score of 7-5, 2-6, 6-2.
At sixth singles, Garland showed that his game is coming along, too, as he defeated Charles Sartor 6-4, 7-6.
"That was a hard, hard, win for him," Harris said of Garland's victory. "Those types of wins will really propel us."
Overall, Harris was pleased with the team's performance under the circumstances. "We were playing shorthanded," he said. "(Co-captain) Phil Charm ('06) and Eric Thomas were injured. But against top teams, close matches are really good for us."
The Bears will begin Ivy play Friday at Princeton, and the tough spring break competition has prepared them well for the difficult Ancient Eight schedule ahead.
"We can beat any of these Ivy League teams," Ratnam said. "We need to all go out there with a certain eagerness, knowing we're playing with our backs against the wall."
