The men's tennis team, ranked No. 70 in the country, saw its Ivy League title hopes take a hit in the opening matches of the conference season this weekend. After dispatching Princeton 5-2 in New Jersey Friday, the Bears lost hold of a 3-1 lead over the University of Pennsylvania to fall on the road to the No. 52 Quakers, 4-3.
"We were very disappointed; we expected to beat Penn," said Dan Hanegby '07. "It was very painful."
The match against Princeton began with a strong team showing by the Bears, who were clearly excited to be done with a grueling out-of-conference schedule. In the first and second doubles matches, Princeton took 4-1 leads, but all three Brown squads won for a sweep and the doubles point.
"To sweep doubles was really huge," said Head Coach Jay Harris. "We've never done that against Princeton. It was a really strong showing."
The Bears followed up their doubles sweep by taking four of the six singles matches. No. 63 Hanegby defeated Sratha Saengsuwarn 7-5, 6-3 at first singles, while Eric Thomas '07 and Saurabh Kohli '08 also defeated their opponents in straight sets at third and fifth singles, respectively. Chris Lee '09 closed out the team's victory with a 7-6, 6-2 win over Jonathan Leslie at sixth singles.
"It was really great to get revenge," Lee said of defeating Leslie, who had beaten him in the quarterfinals of Dartmouth's Big Green Invitational in November. "I played smart. I did what I needed to do to win."
While the Tigers lacked the Bears' impressive national ranking, they fielded a strong team that made every match close.
"Princeton is one of the two most talented teams in the league," Harris said. "I was really proud of our guys."
Against Penn the next day in Philadelphia, the Bears again began by sweeping the doubles point. This time, the first and second doubles matches were decided in tiebreakers, with Charm and Lee earning a 9-8 (6) win at first doubles and Hanegby and Kohli taking a 9-8 (5) win at second doubles.
"We saved a match point," Lee said. "We came back with a great return game. After we clinched that, everyone was pretty psyched."
Meanwhile, Thomas and Sam Garland '09 took the third doubles match 8-5. "It was a credit to our toughness to sweep the doubles matches," Harris said.
Singles play began with more wins by Kohli and Lee. At fifth singles, Kohli won 7-6 (5), 6-2, while Lee took a 6-2, 6-2 victory at sixth singles.
The next match completed was a 6-1, 6-2 loss by Charm at fourth singles, making the total match score 3-1 with half of the singles matches completed. But with just one win needed in the second three matches, the Bears failed to take any.
"The turning point was midway through the singles matches," Harris said. "They let their (aggressiveness) slip a bit and allowed Penn to stay in the match."
At first singles, Hanegby lost the first set in a tiebreaker and was unable to recover, falling 7-6 (5), 6-2. At second singles, Ratnam also dropped his first set in a tiebreaker, and though he rallied back to take the second set, he ultimately lost the match 7-6 (10), 4-6, 6-2. Another three-set match was lost at third singles, as Thomas fell 7-5, 2-6, 6-0.
"It was tough to lose the match like that," Harris said. "Penn fought hard, we fought hard. We definitely put it all out there on the court."
While the Bears were clearly frustrated, they refused to dwell on the loss, instead focusing on what they need to do to have a shot at the Ivy title.
"We're very positive, we're working hard and we're very focused. We need to stay focused on ourselves," Hanegby said.
And that outlook clearly started with the coach.
"We have to just continue to improve," Harris said. "We're still a young team, and we're still battling the injury bug. We definitely need to get a little healthier. Phil has had a rough month, and that's been a little frustrating for him. We need some others to step up."
