The No. 56 men’s tennis team swept its weekend matches in impressive fashion, defeating Binghamton and Stony Brook in two non-conference matches. The Lions picked up their fourth and fifth victories of the spring season, as they prepare for Ivy play starting on Mar. 6, when they travel to Ithaca to take on Cornell.
Columbia hosted Binghamton, which came into Friday’s matchup boasting two impressive wins over Ivy League foes, 5-2 wins at Brown and Cornell. In addition, Binghamton featured Sven Vloedgraven, the top ranked singles player in the region.
“... I was worried a little bit about Binghamton,” head coach Bid Goswami said. “They had been playing pretty well with wins over other Ivy teams on the road, so I was a little worried, and I knew they were good at No.1, the guy had won regionals.”
The doubles point was competitive from the start, with Columbia eventually edging Binghamton on the important points. At No. 3 doubles, Lions duo of Rajeev Deb-Sen and Kevin Kung got a late break at 6-6, and served out the set to take an 8-6 win. At No. 1 doubles, senior co-captains Jonathan Wong and Mihai Nichifor got a break at 6-4 in the pro-set and held serve for the rest of the match, winning 8-5. The No. 2 duo of sophomore Haig Schneiderman and freshman Nathaniel Gery jumped out to a 5-2 lead, but quickly saw that lead slip away, as Binghamton rallied, but ultimately fell short, losing 8-6, giving Columbia a sweep of the doubles point.
Singles play saw three matches halted by retirements. First one off the court was junior Kevin Kung, who played one of the opponents he played in doubles. Kung ran his opponent ragged across the court, and ultimately forced a retirement when his opponent lost the first set 6-0. Schneiderman, at No. 3 singles, forced his opponent, Moshe Levy, to retire as well, winning 6-1, 3-0 and putting Columbia up 3-0. The next Lion off the court was Nichifor, who had a straightforward win at No. 2 singles over Alexandre Haggai, winning 6-1, 6-3, and clinching the match for Columbia 4-0. Rajeev Deb-Sen, playing at No. 4 singles, was defeated by Gilbert Wong in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, and freshman Cyril Bucher lost at No. 5 singles in a third set super tiebreak, that was played since the two split sets and the match had already been decided. At No. 1 singles, Wong lost a tight first set, 7-5, and was down 2-0 in the second when he retired as well, since the outcome had already been decided.
The next day, the Lions welcomed the Stony Brook Seawolves to the Dick Savitt Tennis Center, and the Light Blule continued its strong play in doubles, jumping out to a quick 1-0 lead after sweeping the doubles point. The first doubles win came at No. 2 doubles where Schneiderman and Gery jumped out to 5-0 lead, and held that for an easy 8-2 win. Clinching the point was No. 3 doubles, as they grabbed a 5-2 lead, and held serve the rest of the way, highlighted by Kung closing out the match with two aces in the final game. At No. 1 doubles Wong and Nichifor got out to a 4-1 lead, but Stony Brook responded down 7-4, and managed to tie it up at 7-7, but the Lions broke right away, and Wong served out the match.
Singles was a mixed bag for Columbia, as three matches were won decisively, and three matches were much closer. At No. 1 singles, Wong routed his opponent, Ivan Rummel, 6-1, 6-1. At No. 6 singles, Gery put the Lions up 3-0, defeating his opponent in straight sets as well, by the final score of 6-2, 6-2. Nichifor, at No. 2 singles, defeated his opponent 6-1, 6-2 to give Columbia an insurmountable 4-0 lead. Deb-Sen won a tight match at No. 5 singles, winning 6-4, 7-5, while Bucher lost at No. 4 singles in two tight sets, 7-6, 7-5.
Schneiderman had the closest match of the day against Halvar Dil, with the match being decided in three tie-breaks. Schneiderman lost the first set 7-6, won the second set, 7-6, and the two played a super tiebreak instead of a third set since the outcome had already been decided. The two were tied 10-10 in the super tiebreak, when Dil hit two great shots to win the match, 12-10.
“It was important for us [to get these two wins], I think it should give us our confidence again,” Goswami said. “Even though we beat Cornell, we lost the doubles point and didn’t play good doubles the whole time [at ECACs].
The Lions will be in action again on Friday, when they host local rival St. John’s at 2 p.m. at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.
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