“I had an uneasy feeling before the match,” said head coach Bid Goswami, “because those guys are a feisty bunch. It boiled down to a couple of points here and there.”
The Bears came to town on Friday and brought with them a raucous crowd of parents, students, and alumni who filled the Dick Savitt Tennis Center. The Lions, however, also brought a fan bus full of cheering students, and each side would get increasingly vocal as the match wore on. The doubles point would prove crucial in the end as it went right down to the wire. At No. 1 doubles, the Romanian duo of Bogdan Borta and Mihai Nichifor broke at 4-4 to get to 6-4, where their opponents would fight back to hold two break points. Borta served away those two break points, and the Lions would maintain the one break lead to win the match 8-6.
At No. 2 doubles, Jon Wong and Haig Schneiderman were locked in a battle against Chris Lee and Jon Pearlman. The two teams traded breaks, and each held to get to 7-7. At No. 3 doubles, the Lions suffered badly, as Rajeev Deb-Sen and Dan Urban lost 8-1. It was then up to the No. 2 team to decide the winner as the match preceded into a tiebreak. Late in the match, Wong found himself battling severe calf cramps, which hindered his play. The cramps were more severe in the tiebreak, but despite his pain Wong hit two winners to put the Lions ahead 2-1. Brown, however, eventually took the lead in the tiebreak and captured the doubles point.
“I’ve had Jon [Wong] as a player here for three years,” said Goswami, “and he has never had an injury. It was such a freaky accident, I still don’t know what it was. The trainer said it was a cramp, maybe he was severely dehydrated. That hurt us a little bit, the momentum changed.”
The singles started soon after with the Lions missing their No. 1 player Wong who could not play due to his injury. Each player moved up in the lineup and sophomore Sho Matsumoto was inserted at No. 6.
Borta won his first set at No. 1 singles, 6-2, in a contentious match against Lee with players and fan’s from each side calling for line judges early and often in the match. Nichifor, playing at No. 2, dropped 7-5 to Jon Pearlman in a sloppy first set, during which Nichifor littered forehand errors. The Lions would roll at No. 3 singles as freshman Ekin Sezgen demolished his opponent 6-0, 6-2 under a barrage of winners from the baseline. At No. 4 singles, Haig Schneiderman was locked in a dogfight with Sam Garland, and fell in his first set, 7-5. Deb-Sen at No. 5 singles proved too tough for his opponent in the first set, getting a late break to win 6-4. Matsumoto held strong in the first set, but would lose it in a tight tiebreak.
Nichifor rebounded quickly to take his second set, 6-2, as Pearlman began to fade while struggling with his fitness. Fans from Columbia began to taunt Pearlman, but were soon warned by the umpire to stop or a point penalty would be given to Columbia. Lee won the second set against Borta, 6-2 to even the score at one set apiece, and the momentum seemed to be on Brown’s side. Matsumoto fell at No. 6, by a score of 6-3 in the second set. Schneiderman would lose his match in a second set tiebreak, but Deb-Sen was victorious in a fiercely contested second set, which he would win in a tiebreak when his opponent netted an error.
The match would come down to No. 1 and No. 2 singles, with Columbia needing to win both. The Lions would get a win from Nichifor, who rolled past a fatigued opponent 6-1 in the third set. Borta found himself down 5-1, but rallied an improbable comeback to get to 6-5, 0-15, during which he was three points away from winning. Lee would stay strong, and push it to a deciding tiebreak, where he would go up 4-2 on a minibreak. Lee would get all the way to 6-2, but Borta hit two winners, including a miraculous forehand return winner, but lost 7-5 on an error.
“I told the guys afterward that I was proud of the way they fought,” said Goswami, “Bogdan especially coming from 5-1 down. This was a good match, a barnburner, and you hope that you come out on the right side of it. I was sick to my stomach though, a match like that we should never lose at home.”
Columbia would rebound on Saturday against Yale, however, starting with a win in the doubles point. The Lions would sweep the three matches, although each one was closely contested. Columbia was down 7-4 at No. 1 doubles, but the Romanian duo won five straight games
to win 9-7.
As the singles started off, Columbia got off to a fast start, bolstered by the return of their ace Wong. Wong played at No. 2 and routed his opponent 6-2, 6-2 using a barrage of forehand winners and service aces. Nichifor, at No. 3 won in straight sets, firing his forehand and serve to keep his opponent off balance. Schneiderman completed the 4-0 win for Columbia winning in straight sets. Borta played another contentious match, losing in a third set tiebreak, 12-10, as did Deb-Sen losing 9-7. Sezgen was forced to retire down 2-1 in the third set because of a leg injury.
The Lions will next be in action on Friday, when they host Penn at 2 p.m.