Revenge is sweet - and it was even sweeter than usual for the men's tennis team at the ECAC Championship last weekend.
In the quarterfinals of the tournament, Brown brought down Columbia, the team that not only took the Ivy League title last season, but also defeated the Bears in both the semifinals of last year's ECACs and in Ivy play.
"The night before (the match), we said, 'Nobody beats us three times in a row,' " said co-captain Noah Gardner '09.
The Bears lived up to that vow, defeating the Lions, 4-3, in the quarterfinals of the tournament, which was held in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., at the site of the U.S. Open tournament.
But advancing to the quarterfinals was no easy task. On Friday, seventh-seeded Brown faced off against No. 10-seed St. John's University in the first round of competition.
"St. John's was the best non-Ivy team at the tournament," said Head Coach Jay Harris. "We knew it would be a tough match."
The Bears kicked off the match with a sweep of the doubles matches for the early 1-0 advantage. Chris Lee '09 and co-captain Saurabh Kohli '08 led the way at first doubles with an 8-4 win over Alex Svetlakov and Derek Wallensteen. At second doubles, Charlie Posner '11 and Basu Ratnam '09 overpowered Pavel Cerny and Martin Kosut 8-3, and at third doubles, Gardner and Sam Garland '09 demolished Jordan Talbot and Artem Vlasenko 8-2.
"It was the first real match we were playing together," Kohli said. "We were excited to go out there."
The match became a much closer contest after the Bears' early successes. Of the six singles matches, the Red Storm won the first set in five of them. After Kohli, Skate Gorham '10 and Lee dropped the first three singles matches, it was up to the remaining Bears to pull out the win.
At fourth singles, Jonathan Pearlman '11 overwhelmed Cerny for a 6-2, 6-0 victory, while Gardner and Garland won three-set battles at fifth and sixth singles. After splitting sets with Wallensteen, 4-6 and 6-4, Gardner fell behind 4-2 in the third set but fought back to win four straight games for a 6-4 victory.
"I played well," Gardner said. "I was pretty proud of how I worked on the court. I stepped up."
Meanwhile, Garland defeated Talbot 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (6) with an ace at match point for good measure. The fifth and sixth singles wins gave Brown the 4-3 victory.
"It was such a great team win," Harris said. "We did a great job of giving St. John's respect and not underestimating them."
The Bears certainly did not underestimate Columbia, at No. 2 the highest-seeded Ivy team, in their quarterfinal match the next day.
"It was a big challenge for us," Harris said. "They're the defending Ivy League champs. They had everyone back, plus a really good freshman, and we were playing in their hometown."
On top of that, the Bears had to adjust their lineup for the absence of Gardner and Garland, who had recorded key wins the day before. "Sam and Noah were so banged up they couldn't play singles or doubles," Harris said.
But the Bears still had the upper hand in doubles play, winning two of the three matches for the doubles point. In the first doubles match, Kohli and Lee narrowly defeated their Columbia opponents, 9-8.
"Winning that tiebreaker was huge," Kohli said.
Meanwhile, Gorham and Ratnam had an 8-5 victory over Kevin Kung and Jonathan Wong at second doubles. Posner and Pearlman dropped an 8-5 match to Jared Drucker and Magdy El Mihdawy at third doubles, but the Bears secured the doubles point for the 1-0 lead.
Much like the day before, though the Bears had the early edge, the pressure was on when the Lions took four of the first sets in singles play. Lee defeated Wong 7-5, 7-5 at fourth singles and Pearlman defeated Kung 7-6, 6-1 at fifth singles to put Brown ahead 3-0, but Gorham and Ratnam dropped the second and third singles matches only moments apart by identical scores of 6-2, 7-6.
"Basically, in a minute we went from being up 3-0 to being in a much closer match at 3-2," Harris said.
In the remaining matches, Kohli and Posner had both dropped their first sets, to Borta and Dan Urban, respectively. At first singles, Kohli managed to fight back through cramping to take the second set 6-2, but his cramps were worsening as play progressed.
Posner, meanwhile, had been two points away from losing the sixth singles match when he fell behind 5-3 in a second-set tiebreaker, but he recovered to take the tiebreaker and the third set for a final score of 4-6, 7-6, 6-2.
After hearing that Posner had won his match, giving Brown the four points necessary for the victory, Kohli decided to retire.
"Charlie clinched the match, so even though I was up 5-3 in the third set, there was no point in me playing. I was cramping all over," Kohli said.
Harris added that Kohli's cramps were so severe he "almost had to go to the hospital." But he said Kohli's presence on the court gave Posner more confidence during his crucial match.
"Saurabh helped take some pressure off Charlie," Harris said. "It's great to see Saurabh stepping up as one of our captains this year."
Gardner said the Bears' victory over the Lions is one they will remember for a long time. "That was one of the best feelings I've had in my three years here," he said, adding that it will be important to use this momentum to their advantage. "To have everybody confident going into the spring season is huge."
Although the Bears followed up the grueling quarterfinal victory with a 6-1 loss in Sunday's semifinal match against No. 3-seeded Princeton, they were proud of how they performed over the weekend.
"We haven't been together for too long, but it shows the toughness we possess," Kohli said.
The Bears will be back in action Oct. 19-23 at the ITA Northeast Regional Championship. The past two years, Brown has won the doubles title at regionals and advanced to the ITA National Indoors, and the Bears' chances this year look good. Ratnam and Eric Thomas '07 won the title last year.
So far this season, Brown's doubles play has been impressive. Lee and Ratnam won the doubles title at the Northeast Intercollegiate in September, and the Bears won the doubles point in all three of their ECAC matches over the weekend.
"Doubles is a big part of our success," Harris said. "We have three really good doubles teams, and we're looking for some high-level success from them (at Regionals)."
