NEW YORK — The No. 16 Columbia men's tennis team rallied back from an early one-point deficit by winning four-straight singles courts to take down the visiting Brown Bears, 4-1, and remain undefeated in Ivy League action at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon.
 
The Lions improve to 12-3 overall with a 2-0 mark in Ivy matches, while Brown falls to 7-9, 1-1 Ivy.
 
"I think this is the first Ivy doubles match we've lost in a long time, so I'm hoping that we keep on getting better in doubles, but there's always a silver lining," said Columbia head coach Bid Goswami. "We lost the doubles point, but the boys were relentless. Every match, they wanted to win all those matches. I think that's good. Even when we were down, we didn't panic. We held the course and one-by-one we started winning."
 
It was a high intensity match from the start, needing all three doubles courts to decide the early advantage. After Columbia's two team of Victor Pham and Rian Pandole breezed through a 6-0 decision, the Bears would get one back with a 6-4 triumph over Austen Huang and Timothy Wang on court three. It would come down to 22nd-ranked Jack Lin/William Matheson, who would ultimately drop the final two games in the match to fall, 7-5 to Brown's Ching Lam/Jacob Walker.
 
It seemed as though the Bears had taken the momentum, but the Lions quickly established themselves in singles play, not dropping a single set for the remainder of the match to claim the victory.
 
At the top spot, No. 38 Pham rattled off a 6-1, 6-1 result to even the score at one apiece. Fellow senior Wang put Columbia ahead, cruising to a 6-0, 6-1 triumph at court four. Junior Alex Keyser brought the Lions within one point of the team victory, battling to a 6-1, 6-3 decision at No. 6 singles.
 
After not competing in singles the previous day, No. 18 Lin powered through a 6-4, 6-2 win at two singles to clinch Columbia's second Ivy League victory in as many days.
 
Both having gritted their way through first-set tiebreakers, Pandole and Huang each led in the second set as play was completed.
 
"I'm excited about my last Ivy League season," said Goswami. "I've been doing this for quite some time and I always thought this was a really special team. I told them, 'Look, in September we were practicing hard like we have never won the five Ivies. So now, let's go and perform like we never lose.'
 
"And they did that. That's why I felt they were a special team. They were not taking it for granted. They all were hungry. So, now we just have to perform. I think we've put ourselves in a good position. Somebody may beat us, but they'll have to play well and I'm very satisfied come what may. No pressure at all. This is the fun part."
 
The Lions continue conference play next Friday, April 12, traveling to face the Princeton Tigers. First serve is set for 2 p.m. ET at the Lenz Tennis Center.
 
For the latest on the Columbia men's tennis, follow @ColumbiaMTennis on Twitter and on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.