With the overall team score knotted at 3-3, the fate of the contest came down to Dartmouth's No. 1 player, Mark Brodie '07, against Yale junior Jeff Dawson in the final match of the afternoon.
Brodie came out firing and won the first set, 6-3, but Dawson responded, winning the second set 6-1 to tie the match. In the third set, both players fought hard, and the score was knotted at 5-5.
Dawson won the next game to gain a 6-5 advantage over Brodie, but Brodie fought off multiple match points to send the two players into a tiebreaker.
Brodie went up, 6-5, with a chance to clinch the win for Dartmouth (6-11, 1-6 Ivy), but double-faulted and missed his opportunity. Dawson took advantage of Brodie's mistake and ended the game with two straight points to win, 7-6, securing the team victory for the Bulldogs (8-9, 3-3 Ivy).
"It's a terrible feeling," Brodie said. "I had a great chance to win for our team and just couldn't hold on to it."
Despite Brodie's defeat, the blame for the loss lies with the entire team. After going up 2-0 overall against Yale, the Big Green lost three singles matches.
Dartmouth started strong as the doubles teams of Brodie and Jeffrey Schechtman '08 and Ari Gayer '09 and Curtis Roby '11 dominated their opponents to win the doubles point for Dartmouth. The common trend this season has been that the team that wins the doubles point goes on to win the overall match.
After Justin Tzou '10 won his match at No. 3 when his opponent retired, the Big Green held a comfortable two-point lead.
However, losses at the No. 2 and No. 4 positions from Daniel Freeman '10, 7-6, 6-1, and Schechtman, 6-3, 6-4, knotted up the team score at 2-2.
Roby gave Dartmouth a one-point advantage after he dispatched his Yale opponent at No. 6 singles, 6-4, 6-3.
In the second-to-last match, which also could have won the contest, Gayer lost the first set, 6-4, but went up, 5-2, in the second. Gayer then dropped five straight games to lose, 6-4, 7-5, and tie the score at 3-3.
"It was an exciting game, and we got off to a great start," Gayer said. "We just couldn't pull it out. It's frustrating that at the end, it just didn't come through for us."
Some Big Green players attributed the outcome of the match to the unfamiliar courts.
"It's really tough to play on the road, especially in a game with evenly matched teams," Freeman said. "Their courts are different, the weather was strange, and there was a huge crowd heckling us. It can really affect your concentration and make the difference in such a tight match."
This is not the first time that the team has lost a close Ivy match this season. Dartmouth has lost by a score of 4-3 three times in conference play this season.
"In two other losses, we have lost the doubles point and lost just because of that," Gayer said. "This time, however, even though we won they were able to fight back and win most of the singles. For me personally it's very frustrating that I lost, and it's tough for all of us that we didn't come through."
The 4-3 scoreline has been a recurring theme for Dartmouth men's tennis in a season marred by heartbreaking defeats and missed expectations.
"I love the team and being part of the team, but it's been a frustrating season," Gayer said. "We were very strong coming into this year, so we had high expectations. We were right on the brink of meeting those expectations, but we couldn't pull it out, and it cost us. It makes it that much more frustrating when you can't convert."
Freeman agreed with Gayer on how tough the season has been.
"We've been in season since the fall," he said. "After the non-conference season, it's hard to concentrate on the Ivy League, especially since they're the most important games. It's tough for the entire team to keep up their concentration, and it happens that at least one member doesn't play up to their potential in every game. That can really make the difference in such a closely matched league."
Dartmouth will finish its season with a match against Harvard (14-6, 6-0 Ivy) this Wednesday in Cambridge, Mass. The Crimson has dominated the Ancient Eight and has already clinched the league title.
"It should be a good game," Gayer said. "They're going to be really tough, but all the pressure is on them to win right now. We just have to go out there and play loose. All of the Ivy teams are so close in strength that on any given day it can go either way."
