M. tennis opens Ivy season with victory over Cornell

Two streaks came into Saturday’s men’s tennis match, but only one remained intact by the end of it.

Columbia continues unbeaten at home this season after ending Cornell’s six-match winning streak in its Ivy opener, winning 4-3. The Lions moved to 11-4 (1-0 Ivy) while the Big Red fell to 9-4 (0-1 Ivy).

“I thought the match was going to be pretty close,” said head coach Bid Goswami, “and I wasn’t wrong. I knew they were playing well, I saw their results on the West Coast.”

The Lions began the contest quickly, going up 1-0 by sweeping the doubles point. It was the tenth time in twelve contests the Light Blue has won the doubles point, with the two losses coming on the spring break training trip to Texas.

Junior co-captain Jon Wong and freshman Haig Schneiderman manned the No. 2 position and won their match 8-4. The top doubles spot was played by the two Romanians on the team with senior Bogdan Borta and junior Mihai Nichifor winning, 8-6. No. 3 doubles consisted of senior co-captain Dan Urban and freshman Rajeev Deb-Sen closed out the Lions’ sweep of the doubles point with an 8-6 win.

“I thought we played good doubles,” Goswami said. “I thought we had a lot of energy in the doubles, and we kept the pressure on them from the get-go. I was glad to see we played well at third doubles.”

The Lions got quick wins from some of their singles stalwarts. Junior Mihai Nichifor won at No. 3 singles, 6-2 and 6-0, improving him to 9-2 on the season, with his only two losses coming against TCU and SMU in Texas. Nichifor, a transfer in the fall from Manhattan College, has been instrumental to the Lions’ success this season.

“Mihai definitely raised his game up 100 percent,” Goswami said. “I thought it would be close. It was close the last time they played in the [Columbia] Fall Classic, so I thought Mihai served really well, hit big shots, and kept the pressure on from the first point to the last.”

Schneiderman, playing at No. 5 singles, was the next victorious Lion, beating Cornell’s Andy Gauthier in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.

Down 3-0, Cornell came roaring back, winning at No. 6 singles with Marc Ash beating Deb-Sen in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. But Borta, playing at No. 2 singles, soon squashed Cornell’s hopes of winning with victories in straight sets, giving Columbia an insurmountable 4-1 lead.

Down and out with no chance of victory, Cornell nonetheless rolled off two straight wins to finish the match. At No. 1 singles, Wong lost the first set 7-6, but came back to win the second 6-2, only to fall 6-0 in the third set.

“I was disappointed that Jon lost [at No. 1 singles], it’s a very winnable match for him,” Goswami said. “I think he had a bad game plan and never changed it. I thought he would turn it around after the second set, but I think he tried to go for too many winners.”

At No. 4 singles, freshman Ekin Sezgen faced off against the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Jeremy Feldman. Sezgen beat Feldman during the fall in straight sets, but was defeated in a third set super-tiebreak, which was played because the outcome of the match had already been decided. Sezgen dropped 6-2, 6-7 (1-0).

The Lions will next compete on April 3, when they travel to Cambridge to take on the defending Ivy champion Harvard Crimson, ranked 68th in the nation.