While other Harvard students settled into their long-awaited spring break last week, the Crimson (10-8) was busy completing a California road trip, taking on three challenging opponents. Over the course of six days, the Crimson went 1-2 in a series of grueling matches that symbolized the near end of its non-conference schedule and helped set up the team for the upcoming Ivy League season.
Coming off a doubleheader split at Cambridge against No. 26 Pepperdine and Bryant, the Crimson kicked off its California journey with a trip to San Diego, where it started its vacation with a matchup against San Diego State University (7-9) on March 17. Although Harvard has been hot as of late in the doubles round, this wasn’t the case, as the pairs of freshman Kolos Kincses and junior Rohan Murali, alongside sophomore Benjamin Privara and freshman Nathan Blokhin, fell successively 1-6 and 3-6. This gave the Aztecs the doubles point and the momentum heading into the singles round.
Despite dropping the doubles point, the Crimson never backed down, securing solid singles victories on the back courts, with sophomore Mitchell Lee getting things started on court six with a 6-1, 6-2 straight setter. Following in Lee’s footsteps, senior Masato Perera and Blokhin won on courts five and four, with solid straight-set victories to put Harvard within one point of clinching the match and an upset win.
However, the Aztecs stormed back with tough three-set victories against No. 112 Privara (6-4, 2-6, 5-7) and senior Melchior Delloye (4-6, 6-4, 4-6) on courts two and three, leaving the fate of the match in the hands of No. 84 Murali. In what ended up being an exhausting three-set match, Murali grinded out the victory 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-3 to give the Crimson a narrow 4-3 victory. Delloye, who hasn’t played since November, was originally ranked near the top 70 before the four-month absence.
Dealing with adversity early in the trip may have been critical for Harvard to secure the win, but perhaps the staggering length of the match took a toll on the Crimson, as it rounded off the trip with back-to-back losses against No. 18 University of San Diego (12-4) and No. 32 University of California Santa Barbara (11-5).
Harvard 2, University of San Diego 5
Just two days after securing a comeback victory against SDSU, Harvard traveled across town to face the No. 18-ranked team in the country. This time around, the doubles point was secured by the Crimson, with stellar performances from duos Kincses and Murali, as well as Privara and Blokhin, giving Harvard the much-needed doubles point. Kincses and Murali battled to a 6-4 win on court two, while Privara and Blokhin relied on everything they had to win the decider 7-6 (4) on court one.
During singles play, however, the Crimson failed to build upon the doubles point. Despite Blokhin winning a nice 7-6, 6-4 match on his usual court three, Harvard ended up losing every other singles match. The typically dominant Murali lost rapidly, 1-6, 2-6, on court one, sufficiently representing the outcomes of the other Crimson matches. None of the six singles matches went to a third set, allowing the Toreros to quickly blitz past Harvard with four successive wins, guaranteeing themselves the overall match victory even before Blokhin scratched his point onto the scoreboard.
Following USD, the Crimson geared up on Sunday for what it hoped would be a satisfying end to the California road trip against No. 32 UCSB. Once again, Harvard started hot in doubles, utilizing the dynamic partnerships of Blokhin and Privara alongside Murali and Kincses to steal the point away from the Guachos. Despite Perera and junior James MacDonald falling 4-6 on court three, Blokhin and Privara secured a 6-4 win on court one against the No. 35 partnership of Miguel Avendano and Lucca Liu. Murali and Kincses worked their way to a 7-5 win on court two to clinch the doubles point.
Perhaps it was the fatigue of the California trip, but the Crimson once again faltered in the singles round. The Guachos started with a victory on court two, sending Delloye off on a quick 4-6, 1-6 loss. Soon afterwards, in a ranked battle on court one, Murali lost to No. 107 Liu in straight sets (1-6, 4-6). Already down 1-2, Harvard fell into a deeper hole, as the battle of the Lees on court six ended up going in UCSB’s favor as Carson Lee took down Mitchell Lee in straight-sets 4-6, 1-6.
Even with a spark of life on court three after Privara delivered a win, Perera fell in a tight three-set match on court five, so the Crimson dropped to 2-4 before Blokhin could finish his own three-setter.
As Harvard slowly preps for what looks to be a stacked Ivy League season, the Crimson will head to Florida to take on the University of South Florida (5-12) on March 29 before coming back home. From there, Harvard will start its Ancient Eight campaign against No. 33 Princeton and No. 42 Penn to open the month of April. The Crimson will be aiming to earn some impact wins at home to rally after a sporadic first few months of the season.
— Staff writer Alex S. Kim can be reached at [email protected].