No. 19 Lions Advance to ECAC Championship Match

Saturday, February 18

Hanover, N.H.

6:00 PM

Columbia University

Penn

2/19/2023 12:29:00 AM | Men's Tennis

ECAC Championships Bracket

Columbia improves to 5-1 overall

By: Garret Sulak

HANOVER, N.H. – The No. 19 Columbia men's tennis team rallied back after losing the doubles point to win four-straight singles matches to earn a 4-1 win over Penn on Saturday night at Dartmouth's Alexis Boss Tennis Center.

The win sets up a rematch against No. 14 Harvard on Sunday for a 3 p.m. first serve. Columbia's only loss of the season so far has been to the Crimson. The Lions lost a 4-2 decision to Harvard in the first round of the ITA Kickoff Classic in North Carolina on January 28. The ECAC Championship match will mark the second of three matches that will now be played between the teams this season.

The doubles team of Alex Kotzen and Roko Horvat got the match started with a 6-2 win over Baylor Sai and Zachery Lim at the No. 3 doubles. Penn won the last two doubles matches to win the doubles point. Aditya Gupta and Manfredi Graziani defeated Theo Winegar and Nicolas Kotzen, 6-4 at the No. 2 spot. Edoardo Graziani and Kevin Zhu clinched the doubles point for the Quakers with a 6-2 win over Max Westphal and Michael Zheng at thet No. 1 doubles.

No. 14 Zheng, No. 101 Alex Kotzen, Nicolas Kotzen, and Henry Ruger won their singles matches to polish off an impressive 4-1 win over Penn on Saturday. No. 101 Alex Kotzen got singles action started with a quick 6-1, 6-2 win against Gupta at the No. 3 singles. Ruger dominated at the No. 6 spot with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Sai to give the Lions a 2-0 lead.

No. 14 Zheng battled to take a 6-1, 6-3 in the No. 1 singles against Edoardo Graziani. Nicolas Kotzen then clinched the win for the Lions with a 6-3, 7-6(7) win over Manfredi Graziani at the No. 5 singles.

UP NEXT

The Lions are set for the rematch with Harvard in the championship match of the ECAC Championships. First serve is set for 3 p.m. in New Hampshire.

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