Duo Gery and Schneiderman leads CU over George Washington

The Lions’ first match of the weekend was postponed due to the snow, but the team played its scheduled match on Sunday, defeating George Washington by the score of 6-1. The win pushes the Lions record to 6-3 this season. Columbia was scheduled to play St. John’s on Friday, but that match was postponed because of the snowstorm, and is rescheduled for March 26, at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.

The match against George Washington started out slowly for Columbia, as their No. 1 doubles duo, of senior co-captains Mihai Nichifor and Jon Wong, found themselves down two early breaks in their match, and never managed to rebound, dropping their match 8-3. At No. 3 doubles, however, the duo of junior Kevin Kung and sophomore Rajeev Deb-Sen won 8-3, to tie the score at 1-1. The doubles point came down to No. 2 doubles, in which sophomore Haig Schneiderman and freshman Nathaniel Gery won a tight match 9-7, breaking their Colonial opponents in the 7-7 game, and holding serve to close the match and put the Lions ahead, 1-0.

Columbia started fast in singles play, notching straight set wins in five of the six singles matches. At No. 3 singles, Schneiderman was the first one off the court, winning his match 6-1, 6-3. At No. 6 singles, freshman Gery continued his strong play this spring, winning his match 6-3, 6-1. Nichifor, at No. 2 singles, completed the win for Columbia, winning his match in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Deb-Sen was the next Lion off the courts, as he won a tighter match at No. 5 singles, 7-5, 6-2. Another freshman Cyril Bucher won his match at No. 4 singles, winning the first set in a tiebreak, 7-6, and then carrying his momentum into the second set, where he won 6-2.

All eyes then focused on No. 1 singles, in which singles stalwart Wong dropped his first set to Yan Levinski, a junior from Australia. Levinski, a talented player who came into college with an impressive junior resume including two wins over top-20 juniors in the world, won the first set 6-3, but Wong roared back to take the second set 6-3. Since the outcome of the match was already decided, the two played a supertiebreak in lieu of a third set, which Levinski won, 11-9. The win was the only point for the Colonials on the afternoon.

The Lions will travel to Ithaca on Friday to take on Cornell, in a match that is being played earlier than normal because of a change in the spring break schedule of Cornell. The match is scheduled to begin at noon in Ithaca.