Men's Tennis Sweeps to Open Season

The men’s tennis team cruised to a 7-0 victory against the Army Black Knights to open their spring 2009 season. The Lions swept the singles matches, dropping only two sets, and won the doubles point by winning two out of the three doubles matches. Columbia was led by junior Jon Wong, who won both his matches Saturday playing at number-one singles and number-two doubles.

“We hadn’t played since November in a competitive environment,” said head coach Bid Goswami, “And I know that our third doubles was a little tight. We didn’t start off well in that match, we were down three breaks and we broke serve once, and I thought at 6-3 we had a chance to pull it through. That was the only blemish—apart from that everything was pretty routine.”

The Lions got off to a quick start in the doubles point, winning two of the three matches with new-look doubles teams. At number-one doubles, the team’s two Romanian players, senior Bogdan Borta and junior Mihai Nichifor, paired up to beat Army’s number-one duo of Phil Muhawi and Johnny Lucero, 8-4. At number-two doubles, Wong teamed up with freshman Haig Schneiderman, who was playing in his first collegiate team match, to win 8-4, as well. At third doubles, Columbia was upended by Sean Harris and Donald Val Velzer of the Black Knights, 8-3.

The Lions won the first two singles matches relatively easily, with Wong and Borta only dropping a combined total of eight games in four straight sets. Transfer Nichifor, playing at number-three singles, struggled, but he won in three tight sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, against Jordan Girdley.

“Number-one and -two singles won handily and Mihai had a little hiccup in the second set—he lost a little bit of his focus,” continued Goswami, “And Kevin was coming back right from injury and he didn’t play at all in the fall with a nerve injury. He had a little match tightness but he fought back to win a good match.”

At number-four and number-five singles, two Lion freshmen acquitted themselves well, as Ekin Sezgen and Schneiderman won both of their matches in straight sets. Sophomore Kevin Kung played well at number-six singles for the Lions, winning in three sets against Lucero. Kung dropped the first set, 6-3, but roared back to win the second and third sets. 6-3, 7-5.

“What we expected, we got, and we now have to get ready to play the doubles with what we think we should be able to do, and hopefully have a great match next weekend,” Gowswami said.

The Lions will next travel to face Old Dominion next Friday at 2 p.m. in Norfolk, Va.