On Sunday morning, the men’s tennis team (6-1) came short 4-3 in a home matchup against the University at Buffalo (4-3). Tied 3-3, the deciding singles match saw the Bulls’ Theodoros Mitsakos edge past Lukas Phimvongsa ’28 in an intense 7-6 (4), 6-4 battle to give Buffalo the victory.
Despite the loss overall, the “team played with huge heart against Buffalo,” Head Coach Mike Fried ’91 wrote in an email to The Herald. “I was incredibly proud of how we competed.”
Zander Bravo ’26 and Ivan Sodan ’27 kicked off the doubles segment against Buffalo’s Clement Mainguy and Theodoros Mitsakos. From the first serve, the Bears rode a wave of domination throughout the match to a comfortable 6-2 victory.
After Theo Murphy ’29 and Elliot Wasserman ’29 won their doubles game 6-4, Phimvongsa and Cole Oberg ’29, who were holding a 5-2 lead in their own doubles game, abandoned their match as two of the three doubles matches had gone to Brown already, earning them a point.
Brown “played (their) best doubles of the spring,” Fried said.
Sodan started the singles matches off strong against Mainguy, but it was not until Sodan broke the Buffalo’s serve at 4-3 that the match started to slip out of reach for the Bulls. Despite a fiery backhand crosscourt winner that saved a set point for Mainguy and brought the game to deuce, Sodan responded with a quick backhand crosscourt, clinching the set 6-3.
With momentum behind the Bears, Sodan easily bagged the second set 6-0, earning Brown another point against Buffalo. Against Emiliano Jorquera, Robert Yang ’29 claimed his 6-2, 6-3 win, bringing the overall score to 3-0 in Bruno’s favor.
Just one game away from the win, the Bears looked to Bravo — who was up against the Bulls’ Onder Balci — to take it home. After his powerful serves won Brown several points in quick succession, Bravo quickly eyed an early break at 1-0.
At break point, Balci attempted to claim an offensive position but instead slammed a short forehand into the net, giving Bruno the break. Once Bravo held his service game and commanded a 3-0 lead, it looked like Brown was headed toward a smooth victory.
But Balci bounced back. After a long rally at 3-1 resulted in Bravo making the error, the Bulls capitalized on the opportunity, easily converting a short shot from Brown into a winner.
Even when Bravo found himself up 40-15 tied at three games apiece, Balci’s consistency overwhelmed him. When yet another sudden death approached at 5-3, a devastating double fault dashed any hopes of a late comeback in the set, and Balci secured the first set 6-3.
Balci maintained consistent pressure on Brown throughout the second set, and his composure led him to a 6-4 victory to earn Buffalo a point.
On a neighboring court, Wasserman fought a tough game against Buffalo’s Minjae Kim. After dropping the first set 6-4, Wasserman found himself down 4-6 in the second. Clawing his way back to force a tiebreak, a critical point ended when Wasserman sent a forehand into the net, earning Buffalo their second team point.
The match also set up Alex Koong ’26 against Faiz Nasyam. A tremendous comeback saw Koong set up a tiebreak in the first set after initially being down 1-4.
But disaster struck for the Bears as the score hit deuce, setting up a set point for Nasyam. Koong charged to the net, poised for the volley, but Nasyam’s crosscourt backhand made Koong miss the backhand volley and lose the set. After falling short of another comeback from being down 0-3 early in the second set, he eventually lost the match 7-5, 6-3.
With the overall matchup now tied 3-3, both teams looked toward the final singles match between the Bulls’ Mitsakos and Bruno’s Phimvongsa to determine a victor. With neither player able to move to a two-game lead, the first set entered a tiebreak.
At 3-4 in the tiebreak, the Bulls eyed their first opportunity as Phimvongsa slammed a forehand into the net, a critical unforced error after his strong serve. When Mitsakos served out wide, the set flew out of the Bear’s reach as Phimvongsa’s forehand headed straight for the net, losing him the set 7-6 (4).
The second set mirrored the previous one as both players remained even. At 4-5, it seemed that Phimvongsa would once again hold serve with a 30-0 lead. But after Mitsakos brought the game to deuce and held a match point, silence blanketed the court.
Phimvongsa delivered a strong serve to Mitsakos’ backhand, immediately rushing toward the net. Mitsakos parried the shot deftly, and in a heartbreaking conclusion to the match, Phimvongsa’s volley flew into the net, bringing the Bulls a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win and completing their comeback.
“It stings to come up just a few points short,” Fried said. “But Buffalo’s an excellent team that executed extremely well throughout the match.”
The Bears quickly bounced back during a 4 p.m. match that same day against Quinnipiac, where they added their sixth win of the season with a convincing 4-0 win.
The team will next face Columbia (3-3) in New Jersey on Friday for their first conference match of the year.
Rahul Sameer is a staff writer from Singapore. He plans to concentrate in Applied Mathematics. In his free time, he plays tennis and Mahjong.
