It's lonely at the top: men's tennis wins another title

The Columbia men’s tennis team had one of its most successful seasons in recent memory, culminating in its second Ivy League championship in three years. The Lions won the Ivy title in their final match, defeating Princeton 7-0 and moving on to the NCAA tournament.

In addition to the team achievement, the Lions nabbed several individual accolades. Freshmen Haig Schneiderman, the Lions No. 5 singles player, won Ivy League Rookie of the Year, going 6-1 in Ivy play. Senior Bogdan Borta was named to the all-Ivy first team in singles, and Borta and Mihai Nichifor made the first team in doubles. Junior’s Jon Wong and Nichifor were also given all-Ivy second-team honors in singles.

The Lions started off the fall season strong. Wong won the singles title at the Princeton Invitational, beating Nichifor in the finals. Wong also won the doubles title with Borta as his partner. Nichifor won the “A” singles flight of the Columbia Classic held at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center, and the Lions played even better in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association regional tournament. The Lions sent five players to the round of 16, two in the semifinals, and one in the finals. Both Wong and Borta advanced to the semifinals, where Wong was defeated by Harvard’s Chris Clayton, and Borta beat Peter Capkovic from Princeton. Borta automatically advanced to ITA national tournament by reaching the finals, but was defeated in the finals by Clayton in a memorable three-set match that lasted nearly three-and-a-half hours.

The Lions continued to dominate in the spring season, as they beat Old Dominion, 5-1, in Virginia. They suffered their first defeat to No. 67 Radford, 4-0, but rebounded a week later to advance to the finals of the Eastern College Athletic Conference championships. It was here that Columbia would suffer its hardest loss of the season, dropping a 4-3 decision to host No. 49 Harvard. In that match, freshmen Ekin Sezgen held five championship points in the second set tiebreaker, but failed to convert, and ultimately lost the match in three sets. Sezgen and the Lions would get revenge later in the season.

The Lions traveled to Texas for their spring break training trip, where they went 1-2 against top competition. The Lions fell to No. 38 Texas Christian University, 7-0, and to Southern Methodist University, 6-1. They beat the University of Texas at Arlington for their final nonconference match.

Columbia got off to a quick start in Ivy play, beating Cornell 4-3. The next match at Harvard was its biggest one of the season. The Lions traveled to Cambridge and handed the Crimson their first Ivy loss at home since April 24, 2005, beating them 4-3. The Lions lost the doubles point easily, but rebounded to win at No. 3 through 6 singles. Nichifor, Schneiderman, Sezgen and freshmen Rajeev Deb-Sen were all victorious. Five of the six singles matches went to three sets, with Deb-Sen as the only victor in straight sets.

Columbia, however, fell flat against Brown, who handed the Lions their worst loss of the season. The Lions gave the tightly contested doubles point to Brown, and lost singles stalwart Wong in the process to leg cramps. Columbia got wins from Sezgen and Deb-Sen in straight sets, and Nichifor soon joined them as a three set victor. Brown was victorious at No. 6 and No. 4 singles, and the match came down to No. 1 singles where Borta faced off against Brown’s Chris Lee. Borta rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the third set, and forced the match into a tiebreak, which Lee won 7-5.

Columbia, however, won the rest of their Ivy matches, including a win over No. 60 Yale the next day while Brown stumbled down the stretch losing three of their last four. Harvard also fell to Princeton, and the Lions won the title as they were the only Ivy team with one loss.

On May 8, the No. 22 University of Miami Hurricanes defeated Columbia, 4-0, in the first round of the NCAA tournament.