Men’s rackets to serve up victories at weekend tournament

The men’s tennis team will travel to Mississippi this weekend to take part in the prestigious ITA National Team Indoor Kick-Off Weekend, hosted by No. 10 Mississippi. Columbia, which enters the weekend ranked No. 50 in the nation, is the only Ivy League school that was invited to the tournament, which features many of the nation’s top teams. The teams will take part in the first and second rounds of the tournament this weekend.

The team was selected to take part in the second annual tournament in June. The tournament has 16 host sites with four teams competing at each site. Each of the teams is seeded from one to four based on the strength of its ranking from last season. The Lions, based on their ranking from last season when they won the Ivy League Championship, were seeded third in their group of four teams. Their group includes No. 1 seed Ole Miss, No. 2 seed Indiana and No. 4 seed Arkansas. This year, Indiana is ranked No. 48 and Arkansas is ranked No. 53 in the country. The Lions will first play Indiana, and then play the winner or loser of the other match, depending on the outcome of their match against Indiana.

Columbia enters this match having won its season opener at home against Boston College, 5-2. The Lions got off to a fast start in doubles, led by No. 1 duo of seniors Jon Wong and Mihai Nichifor, who upset the No. 27 team in the country by a score of 8-3. After sweeping through the doubles point, the Lions got tremendous play from the bottom of their lineup as they got wins from No. 3 through 6 singles, highlighted by two victories from freshmen Cyril Bucher at No. 4 singles, and Nathaniel Gery at No. 6 singles. In addition, sophomores Haig Schneiderman at No. 3 singles, and Rajeev Deb-Sen at No. 5 singles gave the Lions straight set wins to seal the match. Columbia lost at the top of the lineup, however, as both Wong and Nichifor lost in tight, three-set matches after the outcome of the match had already been decided.

Columbia’s first opponent, Indiana, will be playing its first match of the spring season. They have, however, been playing individual matches since the start of the new year, taking part in the UNLV Spring Invitational and the Hokie Challenge. The Hoosiers came out of those two tournaments with strong results, as they won four individual singles titles and one doubles title.

Arkansas, which enters the tournament on a two-match losing streak, will take on Ole Miss in the weekend’s first match. The Razorbacks have lost two matches this season to some of the nation’s top teams, losing their first match, 4-3 to No. 26 Washington and their second match to No. 8 Texas.

Ole Miss enters the bracket as the top seed and the favorite. The team is predicted to once again win the SEC West, and will also be looking to keep up its impressive record at the National Team Indoor Tournament, where it reached the final 16 for the past 15 seasons. Ole Miss is coming off a dramatic 4-3 win over its rival, Mississippi State. Ole Miss found itself down 3-0 in the match, but managed to rally to a 4-3 win, led largely by a strong performance by the bottom of its lineup. The win was the 24th straight dual-match win for Ole Miss.

The winner of both of the weekend’s matches will advance to the National Team Indoor Final 16, which is scheduled to be held Feb. 6 and 7.