In Friday's encounter at the Boss Tennis Center, defending Ivy champions Brown quashed the Big Green resistance, but the match was much more intriguing than the 6-1 score would suggest.
It was yet another week in which the Dartmouth players seemed close to a breakthrough, but lost their composure in the decisive moments.
In doubles play against Brown, Raj Shrestha '06 and Ari Gayer '09 won a closely contested match at No. 3, defeating Eric Thomas and Sam Garland 9-7. Brown answered by winning the No. 2 match against Jeff Schechtman '08 and Rashaad Elder-Bush '06, 9-7.
It came down to the No. 1 doubles match, and at 8-8, Steven McGaughey'07 and Dave Waslen '07 went to a tie-breaker against Phil Charm and Chris Lee. Dartmouth's top seeds lost 7-4 in the breaker and surrendered the doubles point to Brown.
In the singles action, Schechtman posted the only victory for the Big Green against the Bears, earning the sole point. He defeated Basu Ranam 6-4, 7-6 at No. 2, but that would end the winning for Dartmouth for the day.
Even though the other matches were won in straight sets by Brown players, the Big Green fought hard and went to a tiebreaker on five occasions. At No. 1, Waseln lost to Dan Hanegby 7-6 (3), 6-3, while Eric Thomas overcame Shrestha 6-1, 7-6 (6) at No. 3. At No. 4, Gayer took the first set 6-4, but lost the following two to Saurabh Kohli, 5-7, 6-7 (6). McGaughey was unlucky to lose at No. 5 against Luke Tedaldi after winning the first set 6-4, but surrendering the next two in tiebreakers, 6-7 (0), 6-7 (8). At No. 6, Elder-Bush surrendered in two sets against Sam Garland, 6-2, 6-2.
"We have been on a run that has not been great for our confidence," said head coach Charles Kinyon after the game. "Losing six or seven breakers against Brown is hard to believe and a circumstance that I have rarely witnessed," he added. "These guys have worked so hard to get to be competitive, and competitive they are. It breaks my heart that they have not had the breakthrough."
Dartmouth's misery was prolonged on Sunday, as the Yale Bulldogs drubbed the Big Green 7-0. After quickly falling behind 1-4, McGaughey and Waslen managed to come back at No. 1 doubles and win 8-5. Yale evened the score with an 8-3 win over Shechtman and Elder-Bush at No. 2.
The doubles point would be decided by a dramatic encounter at No. 3, where Shrestha and Gayer played against Chris Lawler and Milosz Gadzowski. Tied at 8-8, the match went to a tiebreaker. With Yale serving at 6-7, Dartmouth seemed to have taken the match and the team point on a double fault, but the referee overruled the fault on a controversial call, giving the point to Yale and evening the tiebreaker score at 7-7.
The Big Green never recovered, eventually dropping a 9-7 decision and the doubles point.
"It showed up again today against Yale," commented Kinyon. "Once you lose it...it's very tough to regain that edge that we had way back when we nearly knocked off Clemson, a top 10 nationally ranked team."
Waslen was the only Big Green player in the pack who managed to win a set in the singles matches, as he recovered from a 6-3 loss in the first with a 6-4 comeback in the second against Branden Wai. However, Wai dominated the final set winning 6-1.
Waslen's loss ended the match for the Big Green, as Schechtman, Shrestha and Gayer had already lost their matches in straight sets at Nos. 2-4 respectively.
Because of limited court space, when McGaughey and Elder-Bush began their singles matches, Dartmouth had already dropped the match. In order to avoid delaying travel arrangements and risking injury, both players retired after their first sets.
The Big Green plays its last match of the season today at the Beren Tennis Center of perennial power Harvard. The Crimson (7-12, 3-3 Ivy) have claimed 25 Ivy League titles in the 50 years that the Ancient Eight men's tennis league has existed, with Harvard's last championship coming in 2004.
"We have been very competitive with every team in Ivies and came up short. Harvard has lost to several of those teams. One thing is for sure, we have a big one to play on Tuesday," said Kinyon.
