The Dartmouth men's tennis team defeated Cornell University on Sunday, 4-3, to salvage a split on its weekend road trip after falling to Columbia University, 5-2, on Saturday. The defeat to Columbia (16-2, 3-0 Ivy) was just the second loss of the season for the No. 67 Big Green (15-2, 1-1 Ivy) and the first in conference play.
Dartmouth began its Ivy League season in New York against the No. 50 Lions. Columbia, fresh off a win against Cornell, took an early lead by winning two of three doubles matches. The lone doubles victory for the Big Green came from the pair of Xander Centenari '13 and Brandon DeBot '14 at the No. 2 spot, defeating the Lions duo of Nathaniel Gery and John Yetimoglu, 8-6.
"It was tough after we dropped the doubles point and had to put it behind us for singles," DeBot said. "Unlike some of our previous matches this season, we came out a little slow in singles and let them get up on us on a lot of courts, which we ultimately couldn't come back from."
The team attempted to regroup after the doubles point, but its efforts fell short, losing four of six singles matches. Despite losing at the top four singles positions, Dartmouth salvaged two wins at the No. 5 and No. 6 spots as DeBot and Chris Ho '12 took down their Columbia opponents. DeBot defeated Bert Vancura, 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (13-11), and Ho bested Tizian Bucher, 6-4, 3-4 (retired).
After the match, the team traveled to Ithaca, N.Y. for its match against Cornell (7-14, 0-3 Ivy) the next day. Not to be deterred by its loss to Columbia, the team re-energized and prepared to take on the Big Red.
"The match against Columbia was tough, and it was really a wake-up call for us, but we knew we had to put it behind us and get after it from the start against Cornell," Alex de Chatellus '13 said.
Dartmouth came out ready to play on Sunday, sweeping the doubles point easily against tough Cornell opponents. Michael Laser '12 and de Chatellus won, 8-3, in the No. 1 match and both the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams won by a score of 8-4. Michael Jacobs '13 notched his first Ivy win in the match.
"I was really excited to get the start in doubles, and after a tough loss at Columbia, Cam [Ghorbani '14] and I really came out ready to play against Cornell," Jacobs said. "My serve really came through for me."
The team's dominating doubles performance carried over into singles play, as the Big Green took an early lead when Chris Kipouras '15 overpowered Cornell's Alex Sidney for an easy 6-1, 6-3 victory.
"It was good to bounce back [on Sunday] after a tough loss," Kipouras said. "I definitely brought my A-game, and it really showed."
With the 2-0 lead, Dartmouth only needed two more singles victories to clinch the match. Ho and Ghorbani delivered the much needed tallies in speedy fashion.
After winning his first set, 6-3, Ho won a quick second set by a score of 6-1. Soon after, Ghorbani won his match by scores of 6-4 and 6-2, clinching the match for the Big Green and giving the team its first Ivy League win this season. The win puts the team at 15-2 overall and 1-1 Ivy.
"We were shell-shocked by the hostile environment and a tough Columbia team," Ho said. "It was a disappointing start to Ivies to say the least. Despite that, this team got up [Sunday] morning and brought some serious fight and fire, which is exactly what we needed. The resilience the guys showed today reflects the time we've spent preparing as well as the principles of working hard and never giving in that Coach [Chris] Drake has drilled into us."
Dartmouth will take on Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania next Saturday and Sunday, respectively, at 2 p.m. in Hanover.
