Tennis closes season with loss to Cornell

The disappointing 2010-2011 season came to a close for the men’s tennis team this weekend, as they watched No. 40 Cornell celebrate their first ever Ivy League title on Columbia’s home court after a resounding 6-1 win. The Lions finished the season 8-15 (2-5 Ivy) and failed in their quest to make it three Ivy League titles in a row. This is the team’s first losing season, both overall and in Ivy play, since 2001-2002, when they went 5-12 (1-6 Ivy).

“I was going in with a lot of confidence, the boys had a great week of practice, and God, I thought we played great doubles,” head coach Bid Goswami said.

Columbia, after winning the doubles point in its last two matches, was swept in all three doubles matches by Cornell on Saturday. Sophomores Nate Gery and John Yetimoglu lost 8-5 at No. 1 doubles, junior Haig Schneiderman and senior Sho Matsumoto fell 8-6 at No. 2, and at No 3 junior Rajeev Deb-Sen and senior Kevin Kung lost 9-7 in a tiebreak in the closest match of the doubles point.

“They didn’t miss any volleys, Sho and Haig,” Goswami said. “We were up 40-15 at 2-2, Cornell rallied to break, and that was the only break of the match.”

Columbia found itself down 1-0 after the doubles, but sophomore Nate Gery evened up the match quickly, winning 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3 singles. Freshman Tizian Bucher was serving for the first set, but was broken and fell in a tiebreak, going on to lose 7-6, 6-2 at No. 5 singles. Senior co-captain Kevin Kung lost 6-4, 6-3 at No. 2 singles in his last match for Columbia. The Light Blue needed to win three of the remaining four singles matches to pull out the upset win, but first set losses at No. 4 and 6 singles made that too much of an uphill climb. Sophomore Cyril Bucher lost at No. 4 6-2, 6-4 to give Cornell the four points it needed to clinch the win.

All eyes turned to Schneiderman, who was down 5-2 in the second set after winning the first 7-5. Schneiderman rallied to 5-4 but senior Jonathan Jaklitsch broke him to end the set. The two played a supertiebreak since the outcome of the match had already been decided. The pair were neck and neck until Jaclitsch led 9-8 and came to the net. Schneiderman just missed a running backhand pass to give Jaklitsch the win, and Cornell a 6-1 win over the two-time defending champions.

Goswami highlighted the narrow margins in the singles.

“This year it felt like one or two points if we could get, it changes the whole tide,” he said. “We won the first set at No. 1 and No. 3 and Tizian was serving, and I thought it was a perfect matchup for him and I thought John could maybe pull it out at No. 6. I thought we had a shot even after the doubles. But that’s how it went this year.”

Goswami had a positive outlook for next season, pointing to the Class of 2015.

“We have a good class coming in,” Goswami said. “And with the intermingling of these guys, we could be back to the top next year.”