On Sunday afternoon, the men’s tennis team (13-13, 0-4 Ivy League) lost their senior day matches against No. 50 Penn (12-8, 4-1) at the Pizzitola Sports Center. Despite the 7-0 defeat, captain Niraj Komatineni ’23 and fellow seniors Matthew Mu ’23 and Roger Chou ’23 drew a large crowd of alumni and current students to their final games Sunday.
“I have my teammates, my alums here, my friends here and it’s just such a great atmosphere,” Mu said. “You’re not just playing for yourself, you play for a lot of other people and it’s really fulfilling to see them come out today. I’ll definitely remember this day for a while.”
Despite a victory by Noah Hernandez ’26 and Chun Lam ’24 over Penn’s first doubles team — currently ranked No. 25 in the country — both of the Bears’ other doubles teams lost, awarding the Quakers the doubles point.
Entering the singles matches, Mu was hoping to “make his first serve” and “just look for the forehand.” Despite his game plan, Mu went down early in the first set and suffered a 6-3 loss.
In the second set, Mu came back with even more drive on the court. “I got the energy going, got my feet moving,” he said. “I was holding serve, getting looks at his serve and the crowd was really helping.”
Still, Mu was unable to take the set and lost 6-4, awarding Penn its second point of the day.
In the second match, Hernandez was defeated 6-2 in the first set. Despite a solid push towards a 6-6 tie in the second set, Hernandez was defeated in the tiebreaker, awarding Penn their third point. Chou was also unable to come up with a win in two sets despite good play and close scores, allowing Penn their fourth point to finish off the win.
The team’s goal was to “keep competing regardless of the score,” said Head Coach Alex Kasarov.
“We always have a chance until you shake someone’s hand, so I love our guys’ effort,” Kasarov added. “It didn’t go our way, but credit to Penn — this is an experienced team and credit to them for stepping up and coming up with some good shots.”
Though the Quakers’ victory had already been secured, the second court match by Komatineni offered Brown fans an electric performance. Komatineni was looking to “continue some of that momentum” after a phenomenal win over No. 116 ranked player Top Nidunjianzan from Princeton Saturday.
Komatineni looked “to hit (his) serve big, take some cuts at the returns and try to dictate with (his) back end,” he said.
Despite the strategy, Komatineni was defeated in the first set 6-3, but he came back in the second set with phenomenal energy and took the victory 6-3.
“I lost the first set pretty bad. (I) got outplayed, went to the bathroom (and) tried to reset,” Komatineni explained. “I said to myself, ‘this could be the last set of tennis I ever play in the Pizz ever,’ so I wanted to just give it my all, get as fired up as I could and hope for the best.”
Even after his all-out second set, Komatineni was unable to secure a final victory and lost 6-3 in the third set. Following his match were two games played by Zander Bravo ’26 and Alex Koong ’26, who both lost after two sets, giving Penn their last two points for the 7-0 victory.
The atmosphere remained positive among the Bears despite the loss as the team’s seniors celebrated their careers for senior day.
“I just can’t say enough good things about those three guys, and I’m so proud of how they’ve bought into what we’re trying to do and the culture that they’re establishing. I’m excited for them to finish the season strong and for their future endeavors,” Kasarov said. “But I’m forever grateful for what they’ve been able to establish here in the locker room.”
Heading into their final stretch of the season, the team will hit the road to play Cornell this Saturday.
“It’s an honor to play in front of all these people,” Komatineni said. “I’m glad people come out because I don’t think it’s like that around the league.”
Dennis Carey is a Sports Editor who enjoys playing volleyball, listening to and collecting vinyl records, and poorly playing the guitar in his spare time.
