Dartmouth's men's tennis wrapped up an agonizing season Tuesday with a 6-1 loss to the Harvard Crimson. The Big Green's final overall record of 8-16 (0-7 Ivy) is its worst since 2000. It was the second straight season that Dartmouth did not post a single Ivy League win.
Tuesday's match against No. 73 Harvard turned out to be a microcosm of the whole spring for the Big Green -- full of competitive matches that ended in defeat.
In doubles, Dartmouth's strong suit throughout the season, the Big Green was helpless. Harvard won all three matches to grab the point and also earn the mental advantage as singles rolled around.
Four of Dartmouth's six singles matches were decided in a third set, but only Jeff Schechtman '08 managed to come out victorious. After dropping a lopsided first set, the sophomore managed to overcome Harvard freshman Chris Clayton in a hard-fought match, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. "[Jeff] was getting crushed in the beginning, but he played really strong for the last set and a half," head coach Charles Kinyon said after the match. "He let [Clayton] come back in the third, but finished strong and took it."
After Schechtman, however, third sets were no charm for the Big Green. Steve McGaughey '07 lost to freshman Nick Savage at No. 5, 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, while both seniors on the team also surrendered in three-set matches. Raj Shrestha '06 lost his last competitive match for the Big Green 6-4, 3-6, 3-6, playing against Dan Nguyen at No. 3 and Rashaad Elder-Bush '06 could not complete his comeback against Mike Kalfalan at No. 6, falling 6-7, 6-2, 3-6.
"It was windy, we were playing outside there and we hadn't played outside -- other than one day of practice last week -- for a month, since we came back from California," Kinyon said. "We lost four three-setters, and that's basically how the season went for us."
At the beginning of the season, Dartmouth played some strong tennis team, jumping out to a 7-3 record before its trip to California in the second half of March. However, the team lost all five matches there and entered a horrific streak, which saw them win only one of the final 14 games of the season.
One explanation for the Big Green's turn of fortune was that it lost two important players for the entirety of the Ivy season. David Steinberg '08 injured his neck in a swimming pool accident during Christmas vacation and No. 2 singles player Mark Brodie '07 was lost during spring break for reasons the team would not comment on.
"We're just not deep enough," Kinyon said. "We lost Mark [Brodie] during spring break in an unfortunate situation. We never really recovered from that, when you lose your No. 2 player from the line-up, that moves everybody up. I'm sure if we had Mark, we wouldn't have been shut out this year."
In a winless Ivy League season, the Big Green managed to win a total of just six points in its seven defeats, often struggling to gut out decisive three-set matches and tiebreakers.
"Ivies are very, very strong," Kinyon said. "They really cranked up their recruiting and have brought in some heavy hitters. But when we played them, we were right there with them, we just couldn't quite win the close ones. I'm as disappointed as they are that we didn't come through with a win in the Ivies."
With a strong recruiting class on its way, however, Kinyon is hopeful that the program is headed in the right direction.
"We have six players coming, two of which are ranked top 15 in the country in the junior rankings," he said. "We also have such a solid group of upperclassmen, we might even get Mark [Brodie] back, so I think it will be the season in which we turn things around."
The game against Harvard was the last of the collegiate careers of senior captains Elder-Bush and Shrestha.
Elder-Bush had a good opening season, reaching the Big Green Invitational "B" flight semi-finals and holding a 4-2 record. Even though he was not very involved over the next two seasons, he played in every match this season.
"Rashaad really developed in terms of the quality of his game. He was not what you would call a highly recruited prospect, but he is a very good athlete," Kinyon said. "In the last few matches, he was competitive in every match, and he did a fine job of coming in and playing at No. 6."
Shrestha was a highly-ranked recruit from Texas and was a regular in the Dartmouth rotation during his freshman year, finishing with a 12-15 record. However, Shrestha became detached from the team and didn't see any heavy action again until his senior year.
"There were great expectations for Raj. His freshman year he had a very tough match, his first Ivy match, and I think he never really recovered from that," Kinyon said. "The Dartmouth Plan also jumped in, and he took terms off. He didn't really play in 2004."
Shrestha said that what he will miss most is the team camaraderie. "The memory that stands out for me would probably be not playing tennis, but hanging out with the guys on the team," he said. "They are all great kids, and I'll remain close friends with them forever."
Elder-Bush's expressed similar sentiments.
"More than anything else, I will remember the guys that I had the pleasure of playing alongside and supporting out there," he said.
"My teammates and coaches have been a huge part of my Dartmouth experience, and for that I am very grateful,"
"Both guys did a great job in pulling the team together in the fall, when they stepped up as senior captains, and I will miss both of them," said Kinyon.
