Men’s Tennis Takes Close One Over Brandeis, 5-4
WALTHAM, Mass. – MIT's men's tennis team made it two wins in two days today as the 28th-ranked Engineers took an early lead and then held off Brandeis University by a final of 5-4 this afternoon. Junior Larry Pang (Torrance, Calif.) helped MIT to the win with victories in doubles and singles play as the Engineers improved to 7-3 this season, with the Judges falling to 3-7 with the loss.
MIT won two out of the three opening doubles matches to take an early lead in the contest. The No. 1 MIT team of junior Matthew Skalak (Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.) and sophomore Edwin Zhang (Falls Church, Va.) scored an 8-3 win in their match over the pairing of Ezra Bernstein/David Yovanoff, while the No. 3 duo of senior Elia Harmatz (Huntingdon Valley, Pa.) and Pang defeated the team of Ben Fine/Michael Secular, 8-4.
Three of the singles matches were decided in straight sets, with two of the decision going the way of MIT. Pang won his No. 3 match by a 6-3, 6-0 score over Alec Siegel, with sophomore Curtis Wu (Yorba Linda, Calif.) taking a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Adam Brown.
Freshman Eugene Oh (Alpharetta, Ga.) took the deciding match when he came back in the No. 4 contest from a set down to win. After dropping the first set, 7-5, he came back to down Bernstein in a close one, 5-7, 7-6, 6-4. The Nos. 2 and 5 matches also went to three sets in the hard fought match. Junior Brian Oldfield (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands) won his first set in the No. 2 match only to see his opponent, Yovanoff, come back to score the 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 win. At No. 5 Harmatz came back from a set down to tie the match in the second set, but he would come up short in the deciding third set in a 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 defeat to Secular.
MIT will resume NEWMAC conference play on Saturday when the Engineers will play their fourth straight match away from home at Babson College at 1:00 p.m. Brandeis will not play for another week when it hosts another NEWMAC opponent, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, at 3:00 p.m.
