Tennis Wins Fifth Straight Match

The men’s tennis team finished off a weekend sweep on Monday, beating the College of Charleston 5-2 to push their spring record to 9-2. The Cougars were coming off of a 5-2 loss to Princeton on Sunday and will next travel to Richmond for a match on Wednesday. Columbia will return to action on Saturday, hosting the annual Varsity/Alumni Friends match. This will be the Lions’ last live action until they begin their spring break training trip in Texas.

“I thought it was a very, very good match,” head coach Bid Goswami said. “They were solid from top to bottom. They were all European, French, and Belgian players, and I think we played well.”

The Lions continued their strong doubles play on Monday, winning all three doubles matches, although each was fiercely contested.
Senior Bogdan Borta’s absence forced the Lions out of their regular lineup. “Bogdan had a presentation so he didn’t play in doubles,” Goswami said.

Haig Schneiderman, CC ’12, moved up to play No. 1 doubles, and Mihai Nichifor, SEAS ’12, teamed up with Ekin Sezgen, CC ’12, to play No. 2 doubles. At No. 3 doubles was the normal duo of Dan Urban, CC ’09, and Rajeev Deb-Sen, CC ’12.

Each of the matches was close, as first and second doubles won 8-5, and third doubles won 8-6.

“I thought they played good doubles,” Goswami said. “The coach told me they played much better than they did against Princeton [on Sunday].”

Jon Wong, playing at his usual spot at No. 1 singles, led the Lions with an easy win.

“Jon, Bogdan, and Mihai all won pretty handily, so we were up 4-0 and so the rest of the matches played supertiebreaks instead of a third set,” Goswami said.

The final scores of the matches were not available by press time.

Overall, the Lions ended up sweeping three nonconference opponents this weekend, and their play against Charleston in particular seemed to please their head coach.

“I liked the way we played today,” Goswami said.

The Lions will play again on Saturday for the annual Varsity/Alumni Friends match.