Year in review: Men’s tennis wins third Ivy League championship in four years

The men’s tennis team won its second straight Ivy League title this spring, finishing one of its most successful seasons in recent memory. The Lions finished the season ranked No. 46 in the nation, and the Ivy title was their third in four years and fifth since 2000. The team received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will play No. 22 Wake Forest. Columbia was led at the top two singles spots by senior co-captains Jon Wong and Mihai Nichifor, who went a combined 12-2 in Ivy singles play. Both were unanimous selections for the all-Ivy singles first team.

Wong also became the first Columbia player since Oscar Chow, CC ’03, to be selected for the NCAA Singles Championship. Wong was the lone Ivy League player selected for the nation’s most prestigious singles tournament. In 2003, Chow reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament, losing in three sets to the eventual finalist and 2005 champion, and was named an All-American for his efforts.

The season started strongly for Columbia in the fall, with Wong winning the USTA Collegiate Invitational for his lone singles title. Wong, Nichifor, and sophomore Haig Schneiderman were invited to play in the D’Novo/ITA All-American Championships, one of the nation’s most prestigious tournaments. Wong and Schneiderman lost in the qualifying bracket, but Nichifor was placed in the main draw. Although he lost in the first round, he notched one of the biggest wins in recent history, defeating Dean Jackson, the No. 17 player in the nation in the back draw.

The ITA Regional Championships brought mixed results for the team, as Wong and Nichifor entered as the Nos. 1 and 3 seeds, respectively, but were defeated by lower-seeded players. Schneiderman, who was seeded No. 17, advanced to the semifinals but was defeated by Yale freshman Marc Powers in three sets.

The spring brought more good results for the Lions, as they were invited to play in the prestigious ITA Kick-Off Weekend, but they lost two close matches to top-50 teams from Indiana and Arkansas outdoors in Mississippi. Next up was the annual Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship, which Columbia entered as the top seed among all the Northeast teams. Columbia beat Ivy rivals Dartmouth and Cornell on its way to the finals, but then lost 5-2 to Harvard, the No. 2 seed.

The Lions came back with a vengeance, as they won three straight matches before facing their first Ivy opponent—Cornell. Along the way, they beat Binghamton, which finished the season 25-1, with that one loss coming against Columbia. Columbia then traveled up to Ithaca to play Cornell, and won 6-1 after losing the doubles point but rebounding to win all six singles matches.

The Lions would next play in Texas on their annual spring break training trip, where they had one of their biggest team wins of the decade, beating No. 42 Texas Christian University 4-3. They also beat Southern Methodist University and UT-Arlington, both in outdoor matches. The team also beat St. John’s in its final nonconference match of the season, and went into its biggest match of the season against Harvard on an eight-match winning streak.

Harvard came to the Dick Savitt Tennis Center, but was no match for Columbia in front of a raucous crowd of fans, alumni, and students. The team won a tight doubles point and then four of the six singles matches, winning the match 5-2 to put them in first place in the Ivy League. Columbia would go on to beat Dartmouth and Brown, giving it an 11-match winning streak and a place atop the Ancient Eight. However, the Lions then lost a close outdoor match to Yale 4-3, which would put a slight damper on their chances for the Ivy title. Columbia won its remaining matches against Penn and Princeton, and that, combined with Yale’s losses to Princeton and Harvard and Harvard’s loss to Cornell, gave Columbia sole possession of the title.

In addition to the team title, Columbia garnered several individual accolades. Wong and Nichifor were both named to the all-Ivy singles first team, and Schneiderman was named to the all-Ivy singles second team, one season after being named the 2009 Ivy League Rookie of the Year. In addition to their singles honors, Nichifor and Wong teamed up to go 13-6 in doubles, and were unanimous choices for first-team all-Ivy doubles.

Columbia will face No. 22 Wake Forest in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on May 15. Wong will participate in the NCAA Championships, which are scheduled to start May 26 in Athens, Ga.