April normally marks the start of league play in Division 1 tennis. The winner from each league will get an automatic-bid to the NCAA national tournament in May.  This year had proven to be a banner year, but an ivy league title would solidify our great season and give our hard working seniors their first Ivy title of their career. We started off the ivy title quest with two matches at Cornell and Columbia. We were able to overcome Cornell 7-0 on the first day and headed to the heart of New York City with a lot of confidence. Our match was scheduled to play at 2 pm at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center. Playing in front of a very rowdy and raucous home crowd. the Columbia Lions were able to overcome us by a 5-2 margin. The Columbia Lions played a great match, and we headed back to Cambridge, still determined to win the Ivy title. The next weekend, we played Penn and Princeton at home, and turned in two wins, 6-1  and 5-2 respectively.

Harvard vs. Princeton match

The following weekend we played our Harvard- Yale rivalry match and took on the Brown Bears in Providence Rhode Island. A lot of Harvard and Yale alumni were present at the match, and competed in the Alumni Grudge Cup. After a strong doubles display and four wins in singles we beat Yale 5-2, and headed to Rhode Island where we edged Brown 4-3. This put us in first place in the ivy standings with one match left against Dartmouth.

A win against Dartmouth would mean that we would secure our first ivy title in four years, and get an automatic bid to NCAA. We started the Dartmouth match slow as we lost the doubles point. In singles we were able to win at No. 1, 4 and 5 to tie the score 3-3 heading to the last match., the No.2 singles match. In the No. 2 singles match, Denis Nguyen, was entrenched in a three-set battle. In the final point of the match, he hit a volley that forced an error from his opponent to help us clinch the Ivy title!

Men's tennis with the ivy league trophy after the match.

After winning the Ivy title, we found ourselves in Reading Period. Reading Period is the week before finals where there are no classes, to give you time to study. During this week, the upperclassmen houses hosted several activities that were open to rising sophomores to welcome them into the houses.

While I wasn’t able to make it to any of Winthrop events (my house for next year), I was invited to attend Elliot House’s formal. Eliot House’s formal was an extremely extravagant event with great food, lots of dancing, and a chance to meet the tutors and the House Master of Elliot. I was invited by Sam who is a senior on the Women’s Tennis Team, and we had a great time.
 

Sam and me next to an ice sculpture of the mascot and emblem of Eliot House.

After Eliot Formal, we had exams, which went pretty smoothly. While most students head home after exams, I had the opportunity to travel to Florida. The Men’s Tennis Team qualified for NCAAs, and our first two rounds were held at the University of Florida. In our first match we played Virginia Tech, which was a rematch of a match we played in February in Cambridge. We were able to repeat the result as we won four singles in a 4-2 win. In the next round we had the privilege of playing No.12 ranked Florida in front of a home crowd. There were plenty of gator fans in the crowd, and despite putting up a good fight, we fell to Florida 4-0. That officially ended our season, standing with a 23-3 record. Here is a link to the gocrimson recap video: Men’s Tennis Recap

Men's Team at the first practice on the University of Florida courts

Final match of the season against University of Florida

As I’m writing this on my flight back to California, I can’t believe the school year is already over. I have met so many wonderful people and have experienced so many things that I will never forget. I will go into more detail in my next blog! Stay tuned, my next blog will contain a reflection of the year.

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