Men's tennis triumphs over Yale and Brown

After unsuccessful outings April 7 and 9 that saw them drop matchups against No. 24 Cornell and No. 22 Columbia, the Princeton men’s tennis team members (12-11 overall, 2-2 Ivy) turned their fortunes around with a 4-3 win over Yale (16-7, 2-3) on Saturday and another victory over Brown (11-9, 0-5) on Sunday.

In their first match against Yale, Princeton faced a formidable opponent right out of the gate. A feisty Yale squad scored points at first, second, and third singles, winning all three matches in straight sets and jumping to a commanding 3-0 lead. However, the Tigers refused to be cowed by this rough start, and they soon returned to form. Senior Alex Day and junior Luke Gamble were the No. 31-ranked pair in the nation heading into their first doubles matchup, and they more than verified their ranking with a 6-3 triumph that put Princeton on the board. The Tigers then rallied through the bottom half of singles play: senior Jonathan Carcione swept Yale’s Fedor Andrienko 7-5, 7-5 in sixth singles, while Gamble overcame a stumble in his first set to defeat Yale’s Stefan Doehler at fourth singles. With the match outcome riding on the results at fifth singles, sophomore standout Jimmy Wasserman rose to the occasion, taking the first set against Yale’s Andrew Heller, 7-5, before dropping the second. However, Wasserman coolly engineered a 6-3 third set to take the match and allow the Tigers to escape with a 4-3 triumph.

The next day, Princeton would find themselves tested again, this time by Brown. The duo of Day and Gamble stumbled in this match, falling 6-2 to the Bears at first doubles and surrendering the first point. Senior Tom Colautti responded with a 6-2, 6-3 win at first singles over Brown’s Lucas Da Silveira, but Wasserman unfortunately then dropped a match at fifth singles, putting the Bears up again. However, the Tigers stood firm for the remainder of the day, with junior Kial Kaiser and Day winning at fourth and second singles, respectively, to put Princeton ahead, 3-2. Ultimately, Carcione again swept sixth singles to clinch the final match point and grant the Tigers a 4-2 win.

These two road victories have pulled the Tigers back to .500 in-conference, a record that they will attempt to improve on as they take on Harvard and Dartmouth at home this coming weekend. The Tigers will head into their next matchup a match and a half behind conference leaders Harvard, Cornell, and Columbia; but, they will look to do some damage as the season winds down.