Men’s Tennis Takes Down Army to Continue Four-Match Win Streak

The men’s tennis team added a fourth consecutive victory to its impressive winter campaign, defeating Army, 7-0, on Saturday. The Lions, who are now 5-1 in non-conference play, entered the match as favorites, but refused to take the Cadets lightly. Head coach Bid Goswami reminded Columbia all week that this was the same Army team that ended the Light Blue’s hopes of an undefeated season just three years ago.

The Lions came into Saturday’s match with plenty of momentum, having won their previous three matches. But this contest would be different from the start. Columbia’s number-one singles player, Mark Clemente was out with an inflamed knee, which limited his practice time during the week. Due to Clemente’s absence, Goswami had to shuffle the talented Light Blue lineup—he put standout sophomore Jonathan Wong at the number-one singles spot for the match. Wong has quietly been having one of the best seasons any member of the team, entering Saturday’s match 4-0 with two wins at number-one singles.

The competition was tight from the outset, thanks to two extremely close doubles matches. The seesaw battle between Columbia’s senior co-captain Justin Chow and junior transfer Bogdan Borta and Army’s senior captain Eddie Kang and Sean Harris took center stage. The match went back and forth until Chow and Borta secured a break to win the match 8-6. In a match that featured sophomore Jon Wong and freshman Kevin Kung, Columbia won at number-two doubles 9-7. These two wins secured the doubles point for Columbia and gave the team the overall lead at 1-0. Senior Jared Drucker and junior Dan Urban routed the Cadets at number-three singles to finish the sweep of the doubles matches.

The Lions kept the momentum rolling in the singles matches as every contest—with the exception of number-two singles—was decided in straight sets. Chow snapped out of an early-season slump with an outstanding win at number-four singles, 6-3, 6-3, in a match that was much closer than the overall score indicated. Wong, at number-one singles, improved his record to 5-0 on the season with a win over Cadet standout Phil Muwahi, 6-3, 6-2. Wong used his flat groundstrokes to dominate his opponent and was seemingly in control the entire match. Freshman Sho Matsumoto won at number-six singles, 6-3, 6-1 in only the second match of his college career. An animated and excited Jared Drucker—still recovering from off-season hand surgery—won a fiercely fought battle at number-three singles, 6-4, 6-1.

The highlight of the match came at number-two singles. Borta squared off against Eddie Kang. Borta used a variety of spin and angle shots to win the first set 7-6 (7-4) in a tiebreaker, but Kang roared back to win the second set in another tiebreaker, 6-7 (7-1). Since the match was already decided at this point, the two were forced to play a 10-point super-tiebreaker to decide the winner of the match. Borta won the tiebreaker and the match to give Columbia an impressive 7-0 victory, boosting the team to a winter record of 5-1.