Harvard Tennis: News and Views Harvard-Yale Edition
In this Issue
William and Mary Wrap-Up
Invitation to H-Y Tailgate
Meet the Frosh: Freshmen Videos
Team photo from the Sunken Gardens at William and Mary last weekend
William and Mary Wrap-Up
In the final fall contest, the Crimson Netters travelled south to Williamsburg, VA for the Tribe Invite with W&M, Notre Dame, and Old Dominion. It was a full slate of tennis with a singles match and two doubles matches per day.
On Friday, in the first round of play, Harvard faced off against William and Mary in most of the days matches. The Crimson went 5-2 against the Tribe in singles, notching wins in Flight 3-7. Denis Nguyen fell to Tribe #1 Jamie Whiteford (#43 nationally) in a third set match tiebreaker while Shaun Chaudhuri fell to Ben Guthrie at the second slot 10-8 in the deciding match breaker. Andy Nguyen, Alex Steinroeder, Kelvin Lam, Nicholas Mahlangu and Henry Steer all posted wins on the day in singles. In doubles, Harvard would win 3 of 4 doubles contests against the Tribe in each flight.
On Saturday, we faced off against Notre Dame and got a heaping serving of humble pie. The Irish won all seven singles matches against the Crimson and gave us a lot of lessons on what the top teams in the country are doing. Many of the matches were tight contests. Denis Nguyen lost in yet another third set match breaker (11-9) against Greg Andrews the Irish top player and 25 nationally. Through close matches like these, Denis has shown that he can compete with the best. It's tough at the top…guys are razor sharp in knowing when to pounce on the slightest opening, and simply had more experience on the big points than Denis. But watch out…Denis learns fast. Andy Nguyen lost in a third set breaker as well at #3. The bright spot on the day was captain Nguyen and frosh Nicky Hu winning at the top spot against the Irish duo, who had just came off a second place finish in the Midwest Regionals. The Crimson pair went 4-1 in doubles on the weekend and earned All-Tournament Team honors in doubles. They play an aggressive brand of doubles and both position themselves like pros at the net.
On the final day of competition, the Crimson bested Old Dominion in 7 of 8 matches. The score was far closer than it looked than the score shows. Sophomore Alex Steinroeder tailed a big win,13-11 in the third set tiebreaker, in the fourth flight. Our four freshmen all notched wins on the day – Conor Haughey, Nicky Hu, Kelvin Lam and Nicholas Mahlangu – showing off some of their best tennis of the fall.
We will face both Notre Dame and ODU during the regular season and will have to keep improving in the months ahead to compete with the best teams in the country. The Crimson will try to calf-rope the Irish in Norman, OK in the ITA National Kick-Off event and hold dominion over Old Dominion at home on February 3rd at the Murr at 2:30pm!
For our full winter/spring schedule click here.
Invitation to H-Y Tailgate
This Saturday, November 17th is the latest installment of the Harvard-Yale game. The tailgate will be in the Beren Tennis Center on the 2nd floor lounge before the game from 10am till noon. Contributing Friends of Harvard Tennis members are welcome to join us. Just drop us an email and we will add you to the list (there will be security guard in the front of the building).
Freshmen Profiles
Come and check out our newest members of the class of 2016! These short video profiles were put together by the Harvard Athletic Communications department and offer a lighthearted introduction to the frosh.
Freshmen Conor Haughey from Wellsley, MA (huge serve and big time volley game)
Nicky Hu from Palo Alto, CA (great one-handed backhand and doubles star)
Kelvin Lam from Hong Kong (big forehand and veteran competitor)
Nicholas Mahlangu from Vegas (world class backhand and great service action)
All the best,
Andrew Rueb '95 Team Scribe
David Fish '72 Editor-in-Chief
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
GoCrimson Men's Tennis website
Harvard Men's Tennis blog
1 comment:
I don't get much time to watch tennis events. So I always get regularly updated about all the Tennis action going on through Tennis News.
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