Box Score
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – No. 16 Columbia suffered a season-ending 4-1 defeat to No. 1 Wake Forest in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament, today in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Wake started with a doubles point win, then took the top two singles matches and a win at No. 4 singles to move on to the Elite Eight.
"It's always tougher in someone else's court to go indoors but I thought we played well," said the Columbia Tennis Alumni and Friends Head Coach Bid Goswami. "We had a chance in the first doubles with a break early and didn't capitalize and if you give too many chances to a good team they will take advantage of it. We needed to get a doubles point to make it a little bit tougher but I thought we competed well. Those guys are a very good team, that's why they are number one but we didn't go away."
The No. 3 and No. 2 doubles matches went to the home team, powered by a raucous crowd inside the Wake Forest Tennis Complex after the match was moved indoors due to rain. The No. 46 ranked pair of Christian Seraphim and Ian Dempster were able to trip up Adam Ambrozy and Michal Rolski, 6-3, before No. 35 Petros Chrysochos and Bar Botzer defeated No. 43 Jack Lin and William Matheson, 6-2. At the time of the defeat, No. 41 Victor Pham and Jackie Tang trailed No. 21 Borna Gojo and Skander Mansouri, 5-4.
Knowing they were in need of four singles victories in order to defeat the top-ranked Demon Deacons, the Lions got off to a hot start in singles play, having a 2-0 lead in the No. 2, No. 3, and No. 5 matches.
From there, Columbia and Wake both took a one set lead in a pair of matches. Austen Huang took the first against Seraphim 6-1 at No. 5 singles, while Ambrozy fell to Bar Botzer by the same score at No. 4. Another set then went to the Lions, as Lin went up on the four-time All-American Mansouri, with a 6-3 first-set win.
Just as the No. 4 ranked Chrysochos took the second singles match over No. 64 Tang to give the home team a 2-0 lead, Huang held serve and made it a 2-1 match with a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Seraphim. Ambrozy would be the next to fall, as Botzer made it a 3-1 lead for Wake with a 6-1, 6-4 win.
With just one more match needing to go Wake Forest's way, the Lions held strong. Timothy Wang split the first two sets against Julian Zlobinski, 6-4, 4-6, and was ready to start the third. Lin was serving for the win up 5-4 in the second set over Mansouri, but No. 7 Gojo led in the top match over No. 27 Pham. As Mansouri evened the second set in the No. 3 match at 5-5 with a break against Lin, the clincher was won on the top court with Gojo preserving a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Pham.
The top ranked team improved to 28-2 with the victory, while the Lions end the season with a 19-5 record.
Next Wednesday, Pham and Tang are slated to play in the NCAA Singles Tournament in Winston-Salem, with Tang learning of his bid today. Along with this, Lin and Matheson will play in the NCAA Doubles Tournament, while Pham and Tang are doubles alternates.
