#24 Harvard Men's Tennis (19-2) - News and Views
In This Issue
Weekend results vs. Penn and Princeton
Senior Profile Mac McAnulty
Alex and Brendan Seaver earn silver ball in National Father-Son event
Larry Sears '58 rockin' the 75s!
Alumni Sightings!
Don't miss the annual Harvard-Yale battle this Friday at Harvard at 2pm and Brown in Providence at 2pm!
Update of weekend matches vs. Penn and Princeton
The Harvard Crimson Netters rebounded from their disappointing loss to Columbia with two wins on the weekend. With beautiful summer weather at the Beren Tennis Center, the team downed the Quakers on Saturday and the Tigers on Sunday.
Right from the start against Penn, the Crimson players came out of the blocks as if they were "shot from guns". All three doubles pairings raced out to early leads and continued their momentum to capturing all three matches. Our "Top Gun" combo of Felton and MacMaster downed their foes 8-1. Senior Alistair Felton (a resident of Adams House and concentrating in Economics) and "Big Country" MacMaster (who lives in K-House and is studying Economics and Government) have been improving their game all season and are starting to hit another gear. They both have huge serves and aggressive volley games. They move and poach a lot at the net, creating havoc for opposing teams. One of our signature poaches, "The Solar Eclipse," describes what it must seem like for opponents when Casey moves through the middle with his 6' 6" frame. They are currently ranked #57 in the country. Our other two doubles teams also put in strong showings with Schultz and Pearlman and Team Nguyen (Andy and Denis) notching wins for the Crimson.
In singles, it was a solid performance all around. Jon Pearlman (from NYC and Palm Beach) won at the top spot in quick fashion against Kocovic from Penn 6-3, 6-1. The "fab four" freshmen would all earn wins on the day. Shaun Chaudhuri (Hurlbut and Pleasanton, CA) returned to his winning ways with a 6-3, 6-2 win at #4 and putting Harvard up 3-0 in the match. Alex Steinroeder (Canaday) would clinch things for Harvard with a 6-0, 7-6 win against Zach Katz. Freshman Henry Steer (Canaday) would add to the tally with a 6-2, 7-6. Denis Nguyen (Wigglesworth) would come back from a one-set deficit to win in a match tie-breaker at #2. The sole loss on the day would come at #3 as Christo Schultz fell to Jeremy Court, who the next day went on to beat the former Dartmouth #1 player. The Final: Harvard 6 Penn 1
The Tigers beat us in an epic 4-3 dogfight last year. On Sunday, with a full house at the Beren Tennis Center cheering for the Crimson, the men of Harvard would write a different and more compelling storyline for 2012. For a second day, the doubles helped put us ahead. The Nguyens struck first, as Andy and Denis would jump out to an early lead and stay strong to the finish, earning an 8-2 win and our first point. Schultz and Pearlman followed suit, winning 8-5 and earning us the valuable first point of the match. Felton and MacMaster would save match point to win at the top spot, avenging their loss in the finals of the Regional Championships last fall, to defeat the top-ranked Ivy duo of Siow and Spindler.
The singles was much closer. The margins in these matches are so slim and the competition in the league has gotten so much stronger that each match feels like a military campaign. Princeton quickly evened the score when their top player, Pecotic, defeated Pearlman in straight sets. Pecotic has been on fire in the league and has gone undefeated at the top spot without dropping a set. Freshmen Denis Nguyen then stemmed the tide and put Harvard back on top 2-1 with a commanding performance at #2 against Matt Spindler. Denis has impeccable technique and amazing quickness – it is that combination that has made him such a tough out this season. He can play patient tennis as well as step up in the court to finish with laser-guided groundies. Another freshmen, Chaudhuri, would follow suit and put the Crimson within one point of the win. But things would get tense. Schultz and Steinroeder were entering the third set at #3 and#5 respectively, with Henry Steer still in a long two setter that was still on court. It was Steinroeder that would finish first and clinch the match 6-1 in the third set. Steer would soon follow by winning his second set tiebreaker. Schultz would eventually fall 6-4 in the third after a strong performance by Augie Bloom, whose quick hands proved too much for Christo on the day. The Final: Harvard 5 Princeton 2
How quickly fortunes change! The Crimson are now 3-1 in the Ivies (19-2 overall) and in sole possession of first place as Columbia fell in both their weekend matches to Yale and Brown. We host Yale on Friday at 2pm and will travel to Brown on Sunday at 2pm to face the Bears. We have a lot of hard work left given the competitiveness of the league.
Senior Mac McAnulty:
We wanted to briefly profile Mac McAnulty's accomplishments this year to give you a sense of some of the happenings of HMT off the courts. Mac is a senior from Chicago who lives in Dunster House. Over the winter, we had mentioned that Mac has won a prestigious fellowship to study in India in January during the J-term break at Calcutta University. The fellowship was awarded to only two students in the whole English Department. This spring, Mac was earned a Summa Cum Laude for his senior English thesis entitled "Anonymous: Essays." It was a creative non-fiction thesis under the watchful eye of Prof. Darcy Frey. Mac has been a standout on our team for four years as a player, tutor, cheerleader, bon vivant, community organizer and general rabble-rouser. He has been a research assistant for Stephen Greenblatt (who just won the Pulitzer Prize for his latest book "The Swerve"), pouring over Latin manuscripts for his next book during an independent study in his junior year.
Larry Sears rockin' the 75s!
Congratulations to Larry Sears who recently captured the 75s Indoors in Houston! We've taken the liberty to include some of his recollections from that weekend. We encourage you to send us your results.
"I am still on Cloud 9. In my first year of the 65's I won a couple of gold balls. Totally miraculous. At the time, I had the same feeling as I did a couple of weeks ago - how could anyone who couldn't make the Harvard tennis team his sophomore year ever win such a tournament. What happened is the following: the four semifinalists in the Indoors were all in their second year of the category. In the semis, I beat the #2 seed, Lester Sack, 6-1,6-0. Last year, Lester was the finalist in the World 75 Championships and winner of the US National 75 Clay Chmps. In the finals, I won 6-2,6-4 against Herman Ahlers, winner last year of the US National 75 Indoors, Hardcourts, and Grass. Herman and Lester were ranked 1 and 2 in the country. I am now looking forward to the US National 85's Grass which are played at Longwood. It will give me another ten years to work on my backhand. Perhaps I'll be the last soldier standing...."
Father-Son Title:
Alex and Brendan Seaver earned a silver ball at the National Father-Son Indoors! Brendan's doubles skills had been steadily growing throughout the year, and it was high time that his father found out! Congrats to Alex and Brendan for bringing home the hardware and representing HMT so well! Alex says that Brendan only looks taller!
Right....
Alumni Sightings!
This weekend at the Penn-Princeton weekend we want to thank the following Friends and Family for coming out and watching. Mitty Arnold, Kunj Majmudar, Team Nguyen, Papa and mama Steinroeder, Bob Steer, Dick Gross, Paul Sullivan, Tom Dingman, and Bruce Price. Also a special thanks to Scotty Clarke and Jordan Bohnen who made time this week to catch up with us here in Cambridge. Please pardon us if we have forgotten you! We're a little beat by the end of those matches!
--
Dave Fish
E. Scott Mead Family Head Coach of Men's Tennis
Harvard University Dept of Athletics
Murr Center
65 N. Harvard St.
Boston, MA 02163
fish@fas.harvard.edu
No comments:
Post a Comment