To say that the men's tennis team makes winning look easy would be an understatement. For this team, the question is almost never whether the Bears win or lose - the question is whether their opponents even have a chance. On Saturday the Bears followed up last weekend's 6-1 and 7-0 victories over Boston College and Lehigh University with another pair of decisive wins, this time defeating Binghamton University 6-1 in the afternoon before sweeping Boston University 7-0 to close out the evening.
"The team has improved since the fall, and we just had a really tough conditioning week," said co-captain Eric Thomas '07. "Going through that together brought the team closer."
The Bears showed off that team unity by winning all three of the doubles matches against the Bearcats to start the doubleheader. During the first doubles match, co-captain Dan Hanegby '07 and Chris Lee '09 quickly dismantled Faisal Mohamed and Pierre Clavel 8-2. The second doubles match was a closer contest, but the intimidating serves of Saurabh Kohli '08 and Thomas proved too much for Moshe Levy and Alex Dobrin to handle, allowing the Bears to seize the match 9-8. At third doubles, Zack Pasanen '07 and Noah Gardner '09 defeated Jon Bonnet and Justin Salkin 9-7.
"It's clear we've worked hard on doubles," Lee said. "We're the only college with two doubles teams ranked inside the top 25 in the country, which is a great accomplishment for Brown tennis."
Bruno's domination continued in singles play, where it won five of the six matches. Hanegby defeated Mohamed 6-2, 7-5 at first singles, while Thomas prevailed 7-5, 6-1 over Clavel at second singles. In the third singles match, Kohli defeated Levy 7-6, 6-4, and at fourth singles, Lee earned a 6-4, 6-3 win over a frustrated Dobrin, who threw down his racquet in anger multiple times during the match.
At fifth singles, Pasanen narrowly dropped the first set 6-7 to Salkin, but bounced back to take the second set 6-1. Pasanen won the third set tiebreaker to capture the match.
The Bears' only loss came at sixth singles. Gardner fell 6-3, 6-3 to Bonnet, leaving the team's final score at 6-1.
Despite the strikingly lopsided score, Head Coach Jay Harris still believes the team could have performed better. "When they came out against Binghamton, they didn't play very sharp," he said. "But that shows we can fight our way out of a lot of tough situations. That's a very good thing."
The Bears did not face any serious challenges in their second match of the day, raising their performance level even higher against the Terriers. Pasanen and Kohli led the way, trouncing Barrett Wolf and Giulio Gallarotti 8-1 at first doubles. Hanegby and Thomas were also in control at second doubles, defeating Charles Weinstein and Jeff Chudacoff 8-1. Gardner and Joe Scott '08 lost the third doubles match by a narrow 8-6 margin, but the Bears had already won the doubles point.
Brown then took the singles play by storm, earning easy straight-set victories all around. Thomas crushed Wolf 6-0, 6-2 at first singles despite not being fully recovered from a wrist injury that he said affected his confidence level.
"I'm dealing with getting back from an injury, so I'm finding ways to win big points," he said. "I had to figure out how to win with a couple of shots instead of the long rallies I usually play."
The Bears' conquest continued at second singles, where Hanegby seized a 6-2, 6-3 win over Weinstein. Meanwhile, Kohli destroyed Miron Nissim 6-0, 6-1 at third singles, and Pasanen defeated Chudacoff 6-2, 6-0 at fourth singles.
Scott had an opportunity for revenge at fifth singles, facing off against earlier doubles foe Ross Lohr. Scott made the most of that opportunity with a 7-6, 6-3 triumph. At sixth singles, Lee overpowered Tim Sichler 6-1, 6-0 to round out the Bears' 7-0 sweep.
The Bears' solid victories were the result of hard work during the past few weeks. "We came back a week early from break and started practicing Jan. 15, the minute the Ivy League would let us," Lee said. "We started at midnight and went until 3:30 (a.m.). Then we came back at 12:30 (p.m.) the next day. That shows how hard we've been working."
The Bears will continue holding intense practices in preparation for their next matches. On Feb. 10, they will face Stony Brook University and Colgate University in another doubleheader. Brown hopes to further improve its level of play.
"Everyone has to get healthy," Thomas said. "A lot of times, we have one guy up, one guy down. In tennis, you can get away with that, but we need everybody healthy to play at the level we want."
Thomas added that steady progress is the team's goal for the season. "You want to play your best at the end," he said.
For these Bears, "the end" could mean another Ivy League title. Winning the league championship would bring Brown its third consecutive title and fourth in the past six years - a reasonable goal for a team that makes winning look this easy.
