ITHACA, N.Y. – In its final day of competition at the ECAC Men's Indoor Championships, the Harvard men's tennis team ended on a high note, knocking off Princeton, 4-3, to claim third place Sunday. The moves Harvard to 6-4 on the season, as the Crimson has won four of its last five matches.

 

The teams started the match with singles competition and the Crimson and Tigers showed they were evenly matched. Matija Pecotic turned in the first victory of the day at first singles, besting Harvard's Shaun Chaudhuri, 6-0, 6-2, to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Casey MacMaster answered back on the fifth court, polishing off Jonathan Carcione, 7-6 (2), 6-2, and Nicky Hu put Harvard up 2-1 with a 7-6 (6), 6-0 win over Dan Richardson at fourth singles. Zack McCourt earned a hard-fought win on the second court over Alex Steinroeder, edging out the sophomore in a first set tiebreaker to claim a 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory. Andy Nguyen grabbed a three-set win over Spindler, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, at third singles, but Kelvin Lam's 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 loss at No. 6 meant the match would be decided in doubles.

 

A new-look doubles force worked well for the Crimson Sunday, as Harvard captured the match handily. Senior captain Andy Nguyen and freshman Nicky Hu took care of business on the first court, playing a spot up from their usual No. 2 doubles slot. The pair took down Matija Pecotic and Zack McCourt, 8-3, and Casey MacMaster and Kelvin Lam's 8-6 win over Matt Spindler and Dan Davies at No. 2 sealed the doubles point and the match for the Crimson.

 

Harvard will take next weekend off and return to the courts again March 2, when it hosts Indiana at the Murr Center Courts.

 

Harvard 4, Princeton 3

 

Singles

No. 1 Pecotic, Princeton def. Chaudhuri, Harvard: 6-0, 6-2                

No. 2 McCourt, Princeton def. Steinroeder, Harvard: 7-6(5), 6-4                                 

No. 3 A. Nguyen, Harvard d Spindler, Princeton: 3-6, 6-1, 6-2                            

No. 4  N. Hu Harvard def. Richardson, Princeton: 7-6(6), 6-0                            

No. 5 MacMaster d Carcione, Princeton 7-6(2) 6-2                               

No. 6 Siow Princeton d. Lam, Harvard  6-3, 4-6, 6-3

                                   

Doubles

No. 1 A. Nguyen/Hu, Harvard def. Pecotic/McCourt, Princeton: 8-3                       

No. 2 MacMaster/Lam, Harvard def. Spindler/Davies, Princeton: 8- 6                    

No. 3 Bloom/Siow, Princeton vs. Steinroeder/Chaudhuri, Harvard: 6-7 (DNF)