Tennis to Face Harvard and Dartmouth in Crucial Matchups

The Columbia men’s and women’s tennis teams will take on Harvard and Dartmouth in matches that are pivotal for both the men and women. The men are coming off a nail-biting, 4-3 win over Cornell in a match that came right down to the wire. The women, on the other hand, are looking for their first Ivy win of the season as they were defeated by Cornell, 6-1, in a match that featured four three-set losses for the Lions.
For the men’s squad, head coach Bid Goswami is hoping that their win over Cornell can give them a boost of confidence.

“You can look at the result in two ways, the glass half full or the glass half empty,” Goswami said. “And I told the guys to look at it as half full. We didn’t play our best, but we still came out with a victory.”

The win was highlighted by senior co-captain Mark Clemente’s three set win at number one singles, which won the match for the Lions. Clemente lost the first set, was down 4-5, 30-30 in the second, was two points away from dropping the Lions to 0-1 in the Ivy League.

“At 30 all, Mark hit a huge ace out wide,” Goswami said. “And he went on to take the tie-break 7-3 and then ran away with the third set, 6-1.”

“I am really happy for Mark,” he added. “He has battled a painful knee injury all season, and I am hoping that this is a match which can turn around the whole season for him and us as a team.”

Goswami reminded his team that they were faced with a similar situation last year after they narrowly defeated the underdog Princeton Tigers.

“We came out of that match [against Princeton last season] with a close 4-3 win, and that really rallied us, so I am hoping that lightning strikes twice,” Goswami said.
This weekend, the Lions will welcome a Dartmouth team that Goswami calls “the best team they have fielded in the last 10 years.” Dartmouth enters this weekend’s match at 6-6 on the season, and will be looking to follow the strong performance of number one singles player Mark Brodie, who has won his last two matches at number one singles.
But the highlight of the weekend will be the match against the Crimson, which will inevitably go a long way in deciding the Ivy League champion for this season.

“Harvard is probably the best team in the Ivy League this year,” Goswami said, “And I say that because they came into our tournament [the Columbia Classic] and absolutely dominated.”

The Crimson come into the match ranked 45th in the nation, and have played nine ranked teams this season, with a record of 3-6 against those opponents. Harvard is headed by junior number one singles player Chris Clayton, who boasts a record of 5-2 at number one singles, and 2-0 at number two singles. In addition to a deep and talented singles lineup, the Crimson have strong doubles teams, headed by of Ashwin Kumar and Sasha Ermakov, who are 9-2 in the season at number one doubles and are contenders to make the NCAA doubles tournament later this season.

Goswami will be looking for a strong performance from his own doubles teams, which lost the doubles point to Cornell in their last match.

“We played great against TCU’s [Texas Christian University’s] doubles teams, all of which were ranked nationally, and we didn’t play as well as we could against Cornell, so I am waiting to see which of our doubles teams will show up this weekend,” Goswami said.

The women’s team is coming off a 6-1 loss to Cornell in a match that was much closer than the final score indicated. Columbia was four points away from stealing the crucial doubles point, and had a few breaks gone the Lion’s way, the score could just as easily have been reversed in Columbia’s favor.

“I told the girls to keep their heads up, to keep working hard, and eventually we will get the results that we are looking for,” first-year head coach Ilene Weintraub said.
The Lions will face a stiff challenge this weekend from the Big Green, who have beaten the likes of Boston College, Boston University, University of Maryland and University of Massachusetts, during a season where the Big Green have gone 12-1, and are ranked 51 nationally.

“Dartmouth is unquestionably one of the best teams in the Ivy League,” Weintraub said. “But they should provide us with solid competition throughout the lineup.”
Harvard, on the other hand, is a team that is still looking for its first win in a season where they have played nine ranked teams, including number-one Northwestern.

“Harvard is a team which is a little down this year, and hopefully we can take advantage of that this weekend,” Weintraub said.

Weintraub was particularly pleased with the performance of number one singles player Nina Suda last weekend, and the coach will be looking for Suda to carry her momentum into this weekend.

“Nina is a player who has improved tremendously this season,” Weintraub said. “She beat the number 11 player in Division II over spring break, so the tennis talent is obviously there.”

The men will welcome Dartmouth and Harvard to the Dick Savitt Tennis Center this weekend for matches that begin at 2 p.m. The women will travel up to play Dartmouth at 2 p.m. on Friday, and Harvard at noon on Sunday.