M. Tennis returns home to host Brown, Yale

Ranked No. 57, the men’s tennis team will return home to the Dick Savitt Tennis Center to host Brown and No. 60 Yale in two Ivy matches this weekend. Columbia (13-4, 3-0 Ivy) is undefeated at home this season: 5-0 in nonconference play and 1-0 in Ivy play, with a 4-3 win against Cornell. Columbia is coming off a dramatic 4-3 win against rival Harvard on Friday, in which three freshmen in the bottom half of the lineup got crucial wins in singles play.

Head coach Bid Goswami does not allow being nationally ranking—for the second time this season—to affect his team’s mindset.

“Don’t go by the rankings,” Goswami said, “its all BS. I don’t get too excited about getting ranked. Harvard is a really good team. They didn’t have all their players in California so they were ranked up until now. I still think they are the cream of the crop if you ask me.”

“Yale had good results in California,” continued the head coach. “That is why they are ranked. And Brown is a very dangerous team. We play Brown first. I am not worried about Yale at all right now.”

Brown comes to New York City with an impressive 16-7 record this season, and a perfect 2-0 record in conference play. The Bears won an Ivy contest over Princeton and earned an impressive 6-1 victory over Penn, a team expected to be competitive in the league.

The Lions, however, have seen the Bears before this spring in the semifinals of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships, which the Light Blue won by the score of 4-1.

“Brown won the doubles point,” Goswami said, “and they came out strong in the singles. But if you look at the scores, there were a lot of close first sets, and we played one of our better matches. They will be tough.”

Goswami believes that playing in the Lions’ backyard should give his team an advantage over Brown, which will have to travel the night before.

“The home court gives us an advantage,” Goswami said, “but we have to play like we played against Harvard, or any of our better matches this year.”

The Bears upset the Lions last season, 5-2, all but ending the Lions’ hope for a second consecutive Ivy title.

“Brown has been a thorn in our side for quite some time,” Goswami said. “They have had a good run for quite a while. A few years ago in 2005, we beat Harvard at Harvard when they were ranked 12 in the nation. Brown and us went undefeated and Brown beat us at home. I don’t take Brown lightly, they are feisty and tough.”

The top two singles players for Brown are Chris Lee and Jonathan Pearlman. Lee was a second team all-Ivy selection last season for singles, and the duo of Sam Garland and Noah Gardner were second team all-Ivy in doubles.

Yale enters this weekend ranked a season high of No. 60 in the nation, undefeated in Ivy play thus far. The Bulldogs boast an overall record of 12-5 and impressive lineup in both singles and doubles. Top singles player Jeff Dawson advanced to the semifinals of the Wilson/ITA Northeast Regional Championships in the fall, where he was defeated by Columbia senior Bogdan Borta.

With two home matches and a nationally ranked squad, Goswami is hoping for a good turnout from students and fans. The match on Friday will have a fan bus, which will depart at 1:30 p.m. to take fans to the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.

“We have been to the ECACs and the dual match against Harvard and there was a lot of crowd support,” Goswami said. “The boys felt we don’t get too many people here for our side. They have been trying to drum up some support and get a crowd going.”

Aside from the crowd, Goswami believes that the courts at the tennis center will play to Columbia’s strengths.

“Every court has its nooks and crannies, and when you play all winter at one place, it gives you an advantage. Everyone plays well at our courts, but we play here more than anyone else. We should time it a bit better, especially indoors.”

Columbia will host Brown at Friday and Yale on Saturday, both at 2 p.m.