SAN DIEGO — No. 18 San Diego men's tennis now has a three game winning streak against ranked opponents, as it won 5-2 over No. 49 Harvard on Thursday, at the Hogan Tennis Center.
After dropping a highly contested doubles point, San Diego won five of the six singles matches in straight sets to collect the commanding win in the heat on their home courts.
Doubles play saw changes across the board for San Diego. After dropping the first game on court two 6-4, the remaining two courts battled their way to tiebreakers. Court three saw freshman
Luc Wieland teaming up with
Adrien Berrut for the first time as the duo won their match 7-6 (8-6).
The new pairing battled from behind multiple times, being down as much as 5-3 in the set, the duo won three straight games to take it into a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, they fended off a match point with an ace, and rode that momentum to the 8-6 tiebreaker win to even the doubles point at one match each side.
On main court, a back-and-forth tiebreaker match went in favor of Harvard, 7-4, as the Crimson took the doubles point to lead 1-0.
The Toreros instantly responded in singles, as ITA No. 117
Stian Klaassen led the way, winning 6-3, 6-2 in his match to tie it up for San Diego in the dual.
Wieland played in his first singles match in his collegiate career and dominated, winning the match 6-0, 6-4. After finishing the first set on a service ace, Wieland battled from down 0-40 in his last game, before coming back to make it a deuce point, in which he won to make it a USD 2-1 lead.
ITA No. 46 Tarvet followed up with a cool 6-2, 6-1 victory against Harvard's ITA No. 84 singles player to move to 10-2 on the season and 3-2 against ranked opponents. With San Diego up 3-1,
Manvydas Balciunas won 7-5, 6-3 on court two to clinch the dual for USD.
With the remaining matches playing out, the Crimson claimed an inconsequential point on court three while senior
Neo Niedner won a pair of 6-4 sets to wrap up the day for San Diego, as the Toreros won 5-2.
Up Next
San Diego finishes its trio of Ivy League matchups as it hosts No. 28 Columbia to round out nonconference play on Saturday, March 21 at noon.
Results
#18 San Diego 5, #49 Harvard 2
Doubles
1. Benjamin Pivara/Nathan Blokhin (HARV) def.
Vincent Marysko/
Oliver Tarvet (USD) 7-6 (7-4)
2. Kolos Kincses/Rohan Murali (HARV) def.
Manvydas Balciunas/
Stian Klaassen (USD) 6-4
3.
Adrien Berrut/
Luc Wieland (USD) def. James MacDonald/Masato Perera (HARV) 7-6 (8-6)
Singles
1. #44
Oliver Tarvet (USD) def. #84 Rohan Murali (HARV) 6-2, 6-1
2.
Manvydas Balciunas (USD) def. Melchior Delloye (HARV) 7-5, 6-3
3. Nathan Blokhin (HARV) def.
Vincent Marysko (USD) 7-6 (7-2), 6-4
4. #117
Stian Klaassen (USD) def. Masato Perera (HARV) 6-3, 6-2
5.
Neo Niedner (USD) def. Mitchell Lee (HARV) 6-4, 6-4
6.
Luc Wieland (USD) def. Marc Ktiri (HARV) 6-0, 6-4
Match Notes
Harvard 10-7; National ranking #49
San Diego 11-4; National ranking #18
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (4,6,1,2,3,5)
