Bogdan Borta threw his racket in the air in celebration after his Princeton opponent hit a backhand into the net—Borta’s win clinched the 2009 Ivy League championship for the No. 56 Columbia men’s tennis team on Sunday. The team members quickly stormed the court after his win, celebrating their second Ivy title in three seasons and shouting chants of “Lions!” heard throughout the Princeton campus.
Borta’s victory was soon followed by wins from Jon Wong and Ekin Sezgen, both of whom finished within minutes of each other to seal a 7-0 win for Columbia. As the Ivy League champions, the Light Blue will be the conference’s sole representative in the NCAA Tennis Championships, which begin on May 8.
“I was very proud of the guys,” said head coach Bid Goswami, who has now won seven Ivy League titles in his 27 years at the helm, “I thought we were very good the whole year. I was thinking back to the beginning of the year when I looked at the roster and thought we had a pretty good nucleus of guys. Then when we did well in the Regionals, I thought—if we keep this up, we could be good. When we beat Old Dominion, that was a good win and then ECACs was a tough match. But looking back, if I had to win either Ivies or ECAC, I would take Ivies because it is much more important. The guys wanted it really bad and I was glad we played well after that bad hiccup against Brown.”
The weekend started off strongly for the Lions, as they defeated Penn, 5-2, at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center. The Lions started off strongly in the doubles, winning each of the matches with relative ease. Borta and Mihai Nichifor rolled over their opponents, 8-3, simply overpowering their Quaker foes with a barrage of aces and winners. Wong and Haig Schneiderman won at No. 2 doubles, 8-4, and Dan Urban and Rajeev Deb-Sen won at No. 3 doubles, 8-3.
The Quakers offered more resistance in the singles, but the Lions were unfazed. Columbia was once again led by the stellar play of junior transfer Nichifor at No. 3 singles, who thoroughly dominated Adam Schwartz, winning 6-1, 6-3. Nichifor landed aces and forehand winners early in the first set to win it easily, and then used his variety and deadly forehand to take the second. At No. 1 singles, Wong went up against Hicham Laleej. Laleej took advantage of his height, winning the first set 7-5, after Wong squandered break points in the set. Wong rallied to win the second, 7-5, breaking Laleej late in the set.
Borta, playing at No. 2 singles, won his first set, 7-5, against Jonathan Boym. The two nearly came to blows early in the second, and coaches and officials had to rush onto the court to prevent an altercation. Borta lost the second set, 6-2, to even the match at one set all.
Schneiderman at No. 5 singles, struggled early against Jason Lin, and was losing 5-2 in the first set. However, he rallied using a steady ground game to win five straight games to win the set 7-5, and then dominated in the second, winning 6-2.
Deb-Sen dropped his first set 6-2 at No. 6 singles, but went on to win 10 of the next 12 games, including a 6-0 second set against Justen Roth. Ekin Sezgen was struggling at No. 4 singles, dropping his first set, 7-5, and retiring down 2-1 in the second after the outcome of the match had been decided. Since the Lions had already won 4-0, Wong and Borta played super tiebreaks instead of third sets. Both were close—Borta won his, 10-8, while Wong lost his, 10-7, to give the Lions a 5-2 win over the Quakers.
Columbia entered Sunday’s match knowing that a win would guarantee them sole possession of the Ivy title, and played like a team on a mission from the start. The doubles competition set the tone for the match, as Columbia broke Princeton in the first game of every doubles match. Although the Tigers would earn the breaks back, the momentum was on the Lions’ side.
Princeton was without the services of their ace, senior and reigning Ivy Player of the Year Peter Capkovic, and the loss seemed to sap the team of some of its energy early on.
The Lions would go on to sweep the doubles matches for the second straight match. Borta and Nichifor won 8-4 at No. 1 doubles. The duo faced break points when serving out the match, but held their nerve and succeeded. The No. 2 doubles team of Wong and Schneiderman was even early on, but got a late break to win its match, 8-6. No. 3 doubles finished second and won the point for Columbia, dominating their opponents 8-3.
Columbia absolutely dominated in the singles play, winning five out of the six first sets.
Wong, playing Alex Vuckovic had break points in two service games early on, but Vuckovic held on to force a tiebreak for the first set. In the tiebreak, Wong displayed his shot-making ability, racing out to a 6-0 lead. Wong won the tiebreak 7-2.
Borta steamrolled George Carpeni in the first set, 6-2, using his varied arsenal of forehands, serves, and topspin lobs to keep his opponent off balance.
Nichifor was dominant as usual, winning when his opponent retired down 6-0, 2-1. Nichifor’s serve and forehand combo was enormous all season, and led him to an undefeated record in Ivy play at No. 3 singles. Nichifor is the third Lion to go undefeated, as Borta went 7-0 last season, primarily at No. 3, and Wong went undefeated as a freshman.
Schneiderman struggled to adjust to the outdoor conditions in the first set, dropping it 6-2. But he would rebound quickly to take the second 6-0.
Sezgen, battling an injury all weekend, crushed his Princeton opponent, 6-2, in the first set and was up a break at 4-3 in the second. The match soon became testy however, as Charlie Brosens broke back and was yelling after every point. Sezgen found himself down 4-5, 0-30, and was two points away from a third set, but rallied to hold for 5-5, and then break Brosens to go up 6-5.
Deb-Sen was the second Lion off the court, winning in two identical sets, 6-2, 6-2. After going down 2-0 in the first, Deb-Sen won 12 of the next 14 games as his opponent crumbled.
The Lions had three matches with players nearing match point to seal an Ivy title. Sezgen was serving up 6-5, Borta up 6-5, and Wong up 5-3. Borta would be the first to finish, holding his serve at love after his opponent netted a backhand. Borta’s celebration drew a point penalty from the referee, but was useless since Wong and Sezgen finished less than two minutes later. Schneiderman, the last Lion on court, rallied for a 5-2 lead in the third, and closed out his match with an ace, to punctuate a 7-0 sweep for Columbia.
“I felt like the Princeton match was a little anticlimactic,” said Goswami. “It seemed like that because it was a 7-0 match. There were not that many pressure points, and all season we have played the pressure points well. We won so many 4-3 matches this season, including our 4-3 win at Harvard.”
“Sometimes to win the Ivies you have to be a little bit lucky,” said a reflective Goswami. “Even with the little injuries, we came out ahead. I felt like we had the depth. I am glad third doubles played well, they played really well these last two matches. We worked hard with that team, and I was happy they played well.”
The Lions will represent the Ivy League in the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years. In 2007, they played No. 2 seed Ohio State, the eventual finalist, and lost 4-0. This time, however, Goswami believes the team can be successful pending their draw.
“It depends on the draw,” said Goswami. “Last time we were ranked in the 70s, we had to play No. 2 Ohio State, and they matched up well against us. This year our ranking will be better [currently ranked No. 56] and hopefully we will get a better matchup in regionals. If we get to play a team like Old Dominion or Texas Christian in the 30s or 40s, at least we have a chance. If we have the right team we can do well. We are capable of beating anyone.”
When asked if this was one of the better teams he had coached in his nearly three decades at Columbia, the head coach gave a glowing review.
“The 1987 team was really an unbelievable team—we should have been top five or ten in the country,” said Goswami. “Then in 2000 we had a really good team. This year the depth of the Ivy League has been so good, home court was a big factor. This is one of the top three or four teams I have ever coached.”
The Lions will begin play in the NCAA tournament on May 8, when regional play is set to begin.