Sept. 30, 2007
FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. - In a match much closer than the score, the top-seeded Nittany Lion men's tennis team held off Harvard in the semifinals of the ECAC Men's Invitational Tennis Championship on Saturday at the USTA National Tennis Center by a score of 5-2 to earn a spot in the tournament finals on Monday at 9 a.m. against Princeton.
For the third straight day, the Nittany Lions struck first by sweeping all three doubles matches. Despite the Penn State sweep, the two teams engaged in a hard fought doubles battle. In singles action, Penn State notched four victories out of the possible six points to secure the match. However, five of the six bouts went to a decisive third set. The Nittany Lions came out victorious in three of the three-set affairs, which proved to be the difference in the outcome of the match.
"Coming back to win the doubles point gave us confidence going into singles," second-year head coach Todd Doebler. "In singles, we got a strong effort from the guys, and we were able to get a win against a good Harvard team."
In doubles play, junior Brendan Lynch (North Potomac, Md.) and sophomore Ryan Gormley (Las Vegas, Nev.) struck first for the second consecutive match at No. 3. Lynch and Gormley jumped out to a 5-0 on the Harvard duo of Chris Clayton and Will Guzick, but the Crimson team fought back. With Penn State up 6-1, Clayton and Guzick scored back-to-back games to set the score at 6-3. However, Lynch and Gormley reeled off two games to notch the 8-3 victory.
At No. 1, senior Michael James (Clifton, Va.) and junior Adam Slagter (Austin, Texas), who are ranked 36th in the ITA national doubles rankings, outlasted the Harvard team of Ashwin Kumar and Sasha Ermakov, 8-6 to give Penn State the pivotal doubles point. The match was on serve until Kumar and Ermakov put the Crimson up a break to set the score at 6-5. That edge was short-lived as the Penn State team notched the final three games, which gave the Nittany Lions the doubles point, and a 1-0 lead in the match.
Senior James Dwyer (Peachtree City, Ga.) and freshman Eddie Bourchier (Hobart, Australia) completed the doubles sweep with an 8-7 seesaw win at the No. 2 spot against the Crimson team of Dan Nguyen and Alexei Chijoff Evans.
With Penn State up 1-0, the match moved to singles action. James gave the Nittany Lions a 2-0 lead in the match by ousting Kumar at No. 1, 6-3, 6-2. James, who is ranked 35th in the ITA national rankings, won the last four games of the second set secure the point for Penn State.
At No. 4, Bourchier scored a victory in a quick three-set match to put Penn State up 3-0. After cruising to a 6-1 edge in the first, Bourchier found himself in a deep early hole in the second. Ermakov dominated the second, 6-1, but the Nittany Lion rookie came right back in the third. Bourchier took control in the decisive set to score the victory, 6-2.
At No. 6, Gormley outlasted Harvard's Aba Omodele-Lucien to clinch the match for the Nittany Lions. Gormley took the first by a score of 6-2, but Omodele-Lucien came right back in the second to knot the match at one set each, 6-4. Despite holding a 5-2 lead in the third, Gormley relinquished three straight games. However the Nittany Lion sophomore notched back-to-back games to take the match-sealing point for Penn State, 7-5.
With the match sealed for Penn State, Dwyer dropped a three-set affair to Chijoff-Evans at the No. 5 slot. After dropping the first (6-3), Dwyer rallied in the second to send the match to a third and decisive set, 6-3. In the third, Chijoff-Evans jumped out to a 4-1 lead on his way to a 6-4 decision, which gave Harvard its first point in the match.
Lynch also dropped a three-set decision to Nguyen at the No. 3 spot, which marked his first setback of his junior season. Nguyen scored a 6-2 victory in the first, but Lynch came back in a second-set tiebreak to square the match (7-6 (3)). In his second super-tiebreaker in two days, Nguyen edged Lynch 10-7 to set the match score at 4-2.
Slagter supplied a fifth point for Penn State with a three-set victory over Clayton at the No. 2 spot, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3. Slagter edged Clayton in a very tight first set tiebreaker, 8-6. Clayton and Slagter headed to the second, with both players putting on an impressive exhibition of tennis. Behind incredible passing shots, Clayton edged Slagter, 6-4 to square the match. Slagter used a break to his advantage in the third, 6-3 to score the triumph.
The tournament finals will take place on Monday morning, with the champion garnering a berth into the ITA Men's National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle, Wash., in February.
Final Score: Penn State 5, Harvard 2
Doubles:
1. #36 Michael James/Adam Slagter (PSU) def. Ashwin Kumar/Sasha Ermakov (HARVARD), 8-6
2. James Dwyer/Eddie Bourchier (PSU) def. Dan Nguyen/Alexei Chijoff Evans (HARVARD), 8-7
3. Brendan Lynch/Ryan Gormley (PSU) def. Chris Clayton/Will Guzick (HARVARD), 8-3
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles:
1. #35 Michael James (PSU) def. Ashwin Kumar (HARVARD), 6-3, 6-2
2. Adam Slagter (PSU) def. Chris Clayton (HARVARD), 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-3
3. Dan Nguyen (HARVARD) def. Brendan Lynch (PSU), 6-3, 6-7 (3), 1-0 (7)
4. Eddie Bourchier (PSU) def. Sasha Ermakov (HARVARD), 6-1, 1-6, 6-2
5. Alexei Chijoff Evans (HARVARD) def. James Dwyer (PSU), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
6. Ryan Gormley (PSU) def. Aba Omodele-Lucien (HARVARD), 6-2, 4-6, 7-5
Order of finish: 1, 4, 6, 5, 3, 2