Light Blue Takes the Red Storm in 4-3 Win

The Columbia men’s tennis team defeated the Red Storm of St. John’s on Saturday in a match that was postponed one day due to the snowfall on Friday, while the women’s match against Temple was postponed indefinitely. Senior co-captain Jared Drucker, in his return from off-season surgery, led the men’s team and made his presence felt in the 4-3 win with victories in both singles and doubles.

The match was tight from the very beginning, as the teams split the first two doubles matches. The St. John’s duo of Artem Vlasenko and Alex Svetlakov defeated Columbia’s number one doubles pair of Bogdan Borta and Justin Chow 8-4, while sophomore Jon Wong and senior Mark Clemente managed to defeat St. John’s number two team of Gustavo Loza and Martin Kosut by the same score of 8-4. With the doubles match tied at 1-1, all eyes at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center turned to the number three doubles match featuring Drucker and sophomore Magdi El Mihdawy for Columbia and Pavel Cerny and Derek Wallensteen for St. John’s. The match went back and forth and was ultimately decided in a tiebreaker after it reached eight games apiece. Columbia managed to edge St. John’s in the tiebreaker and win the pivotal doubles point.

Columbia got out to a quick lead in the singles matches. Wong gave the Lions a 2-0 edge with his 6-0, 6-4 win at number two singles. Wong has quietly been having a fantastic year—going 4-0 in singles play—and has played at nearly all of the spots in the singles lineup. Borta, playing at number three singles, extended Columbia’s lead to 3-0 with a 6-2, 6-4 win. After Dan Urban’s loss at number six singles, Drucker took the court with the intention of putting the match away for the Lions.

Drucker’s opponent was Asaf Honig, a freshman from Israel who entered the match 0-4 on the season, with all of the matches being tough, three set losses at the number three singles spot. Against Drucker at number four singles, Honig was clearly overwhelmed in the first set, losing at love, 6-0. Although Honig improved his level of play in the second set, Drucker used an imposing ground game and thumping serve to overwhelm his opponent 6-0, 6-4 and clinch the match at 4-1 for Columbia. Rounding out the final score were two close losses by Clemente at number one singles and Chow at number five singles.

This weekend’s win improved the Lions’ record to 4-1 in nonconference play and dropped the Red Storm to 4-1.

The men’s team’s next match will be against Army on Friday, Feb. 29th at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center, and the women’s team will return to competition on March 1-2 against West Virginia and Penn State in University Park, Penn.