No. 16 Lions Sweep Penn, Move to 4-0 in Ivy Matches

Sunday, April 14

Dick Savitt Tennis Center

1:00 PM

Columbia University

Penn

Photo by: Columbia University Athletics/Mike McLaughlin

No. 16 Lions Sweep Penn, Move to 4-0 in Ivy Matches

4/14/2019 4:52:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Columbia continues pursuit of its sixth-straight Ivy League title

NEW YORK — The No. 16 Columbia men's tennis team continued its undefeated streak in Ivy League matches, earning a 7-0 sweep over the visiting Penn Quakers in a spirited match at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon.

The Lions rise to 14-3 overall, with an unblemished 4-0 mark in Ivy matches, while Penn falls to 16-10, 0-5 Ivy.

The doubles competition was highly competitive, with both the top two courts requiring a tiebreak to decide. After Columbia's No. 3 pairing of Adam Ambrozy/Jason Lui cruised through a 6-0 match, it was Victor Pham/Rian Pandole who finally clinched the early advantage with a 7-6 (4) triumph on court two. On the top court, No. 26 Jack Lin/William Matheson finished seconds later, winning a 7-6 (3) decision.

"We had been slow. We'd lost two doubles points in a row so we wanted to win it," said Columbia head coach Bid Goswami. "We're still not 100 percent, but maybe this will help us for the next matches because we need to win doubles. Again we were in two tiebreakers. We put Jason in and I think he was the best doubles player today, he made every return and every good serve. It takes the coaches sometimes a year and a half to figure out, but at least we did it now. I liked the end. It was close, but we came through with the right plays."

Sophomore Austen Huang lengthened the Lions' lead to two, winning in straight sets at No. 5 singles. Very shortly after, 114th-ranked Ambrozy gathered a 6-1, 6-3 result on court three to bring Columbia within one of the team victory. It was No. 39 Pham who ultimately clinched the team win, fending off a second-set comeback from Penn's 79th-ranked Kyle Mautner on the top court, 6-1, 7-5.

Within seconds of Pham sealing the win, Alex Keyser and Lin each won in straight sets to extend the score to 6-0. Senior Timothy Wang would battle his way through a 10-point superset to take down Dmitry Shatalin, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 1-0 (5) at four singles.

"I liked the fight," said Goswami. "Even Timmy in the end, he said, 'I don't want to lose to him. I'm not going to be the one guy who loses a match.' So, it was good. They should have an edge that it's not given to us and they have to earn it. They have confidence, but they're not cocky. They're working hard."

Columbia will hit the road for back-to-back Ivy matches next weekend, first squaring off with Dartmouth on Saturday, April 20 before heading to Harvard the following day. Both contests are set to begin at 1 p.m. ET.

For the latest on the Columbia men's tennis, follow @ColumbiaMTennis on Twitter and on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.