Junior James Moore knew the ECAC men’s tennis coaches undervalued his team when they picked the Lions to finish in the middle of the Ivy pack this season. He just needed some evidence.
Moore got his proof last weekend when the Lions stunned the Harvard Crimson, handing them their first conference loss since 2002. But what happened that Saturday was more important than proving other coaches wrong. All of a sudden, the men’s tennis team was in contention for an Ivy League title.
“That was when we knew we had a real shot at it,” Moore said.
The improbable run for a conference title that started a week ago hit a roadblock Saturday when the team slipped against Brown. But the Lions, with two conference matches left and a little luck, still have a chance to clinch at least a share of the Ivy championship.
Moore calls this season the best in his three years at Columbia but also the most unlikely, considering that the team’s roster consists of only two seniors and a large number of underclassmen. The question was how such a young and potentially talented squad was going to play against some of the top teams in the league.
The team’s stunner against Harvard was the first sign of strength; next weekend’s matches should be the next.
The Lions suffered a disappointing defeat against the Bears, missing a chance to go undefeated in conference play.
“I think everyone was upset,” Moore said. “We knew if we could win that one we only needed one of two this [coming] weekend. We’re still optimistic.”
This weekend will test the young team’s resilience and assess the squad’s ability to pounce on a golden opportunity. The team faces Penn and Princeton, two winnable matches that are the last hurdles to a title.
The biggest challenge this weekend will be against the Quakers, a senior-heavy team that has some potential to upset Columbia. Beyond how the teams match up, the Lions will know before the first ball is served whether or not their team has a shot at a share of the title, since the outcome of the Harvard-Brown match will have been decided.
Harvard, with a share of the title on the line as well, will certainly give Brown problems and could very well upset the Bears with their first loss of the season.
The Lions are winning matches in doubles play and closing out close contests when the pressure is on. Although the singles points constitute a larger percentage of the overall result, the additional doubles point often serves as the difference in close matches.
Against Brown, the Lions struggled both in doubles and singles, and their performance was only made worse by the full body cramp first-year Jared Drucker sustained after the contest had been decided.
Head coach Bid Goswami went with Drucker to the hospital and later sent the team an e-mail telling members to keep their confidence up.
The men’s tennis team, consistently a strong performer in the conference, faces a challenge next weekend many good teams struggle with—the ability to snatch a championship when the opportunity is there. The Lions haven’t tasted a title since 2001 and over the past few years have been largely fueled by top singles player Oscar Chow, who graduated in 2003. While Chow was a star, this year’s team has players who win close matches across the board.
Regardless of whether or not Harvard beats Brown, the Lions need to win both of these matches to ensure that their title shot is not lost because of a blunder against the Tigers or Quakers.
This young squad still controls its fate.
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