The men’s tennis team (9-6) swept its weekend matches at home against the College of the Holy Cross (1-5) and Hofstra University (3-5). The Bears won by scores of 7-0 and 5-2, respectively, at the indoor tennis courts in the Pizzitola Sports Center.
“Our guys kept things simple and brought lots of energy, which led to us not dropping more than two games in any of the doubles sets for the weekend,” said Assistant Coach Rob Raines. “If this trend continues we will be in great shape for Ivy (League) play.”
In Saturday afternoon’s match against Holy Cross, Brown clinched the doubles points by winning all three doubles matches. Niraj Komatineni ’23 and Alan Arocho ’22 won their match by a score of 6-3. Duos of Ching Lam ’22 and Chun Lam ’24 and Roger Chou ’22.5 and Matthew Mu ’23 both swept their matches with 6-0 wins.
“This weekend's matches were great for us since it has been a couple of weeks since our last match,” Komatineni said. “It allows us to hone back into what we need to work on in practice for the next few weeks going into spring break and Ivy season.”
Singles wins by Chou, Komatineni, Mu, Chun Lam, Sam Feldman ’25 and Robert Siniakowicz ’22 — who was playing his first game for Brown in two years — gave the Bears six more points to cap off a 7-0 win against the Holy Cross Crusaders. Komatineni won his match in straight sets with a final score of 6-0.
“We bounced back from a tough loss against (the College of) William and Mary two weeks ago,” Ching Lam said. “We trained hard to improve on our game during these two weeks, which definitely showed.” Bruno fell to William and Mary 4-1 Feb. 27.
Brown earned another win in Sunday’s match against Hofstra. The Bears opened the match with doubles wins by Komatineni and Arocho as well as Ching Lam and Chun Lam. Chou and Mu led 5-2 in their match, but the third match ended early because the Bears had already won the majority of their double sets. Komatineni said his and Arocho’s doubles match was “the best doubles that (we) have played together in a match so far.”
“The best part of the weekend was the doubles point against Hofstra,” Komatineni said. “All three doubles teams came out of the gate with a ton of energy and got out to commanding leads early.”
The Bears earned four points in singles matches after wins by Ching Lam, Chou, Komatineni and Mu. The singles wins secured Brown’s 5-2 victory over Hofstra.
“It was a great overall performance by the team this weekend coming out with two wins,” Ching Lam said. “I think our performance (Sunday) as a team, especially in doubles, was one of the best we've had all season.”
Even though the team has only two matches left before Ivy League play begins April 3, Komatineni said “nothing changes” in terms of the Bears’ preparation.
“We've been working toward getting ready for Ivy League play since the beginning of the year and want to keep working hard as we go into April,” Komatineni said. “The level of tennis is generally super high, so we need to make sure we are practicing playing high energy, disciplined tennis.”
Ching Lam added that the team will “treat every match the same way.” From April 3 to 24, Brown will face at least one Ivy opponent every weekend.
“I think preparation will be more or less the same, but with an emphasis on keeping our bodies healthy and fresh given the long season we've had,” Ching Lam said. “We want to play our best tennis when Ivy play comes and end our season on a high note.”
The team will travel to California next for matches against California State University, Sacramento (9-5) on March 29 and the University of San Francisco (7-5) on March 30.
