Tribe Drops Tight Road Contest at Harvard

Alex Cojanu and Keziel Juneau defeated their third nationally-ranked doubles opponent of the season at the No. 1 pairs spot.

02/02/08 12:45PM

Boston, Mass. - The No. 38 William and Mary men’s tennis team dropped a tightly contest road affair at No. 75 Harvard on Friday evening. W&M claimed the doubles point to open the match, but could not hang on to the momentum, dropping four of the six singles contests, all in three sets. The Tribe fell to 5-3 on the year, while Harvard won its dual-match opener.

The Tribe started the match in good form, winning all three doubles matches. It marked the third straight contest that the College had swept the doubles positions. W&M claimed the point with 8-5 wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 slots. Sophomore Richard Wardell and junior Alex Zuck disposed of Dan Nguyen and Aba Omodele-Lucien at the No. 2 position, while junior Dominic Pagon and freshman Sebastien Vidal up ended Chris Clayton and Alexei Chijoff-Evans at the No. 3 spot.

The highlighted match of the doubles contest with a battle of two nationally ranked pairs, pitting No. 33-ranked Alex Cojanu and Keziel Juneau of W&M against the No. 14-ranked Harvard duo of Ashwin Kumar and Sasha Ermakov. The contest went down to the wire with the Tribe tandem claiming its third win over a nationally-ranked pair this season in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (5).

Juneau extended the Tribe advantage to 2-0, winning the only singles match in straight sets. The W&M sophomore bounced Ermakov, 6-3, 6-4, at the No. 3 slot for his third straight win. He bumped his mark to 9-7 overall on the year and 4-2 in dual matches.

The Crimson won the next three matches off the court to cease the lead, 3-2. Junior Marwan Ramadan evened the contest at three with a come-from-behind three-set win at the No. 5 slot. After dropping the first set to Omodele-Lucien, 6-3, Ramadan rallied to win the point for the Tribe with identical 7-5 victories in the second and third sets. He improved his overall record to 11-6, while also jumping to 4-1 in dual match competition. Harvard, though, claimed the match with a three-set victory at the No. 1 singles position.

The Tribe will wrap up its three-match trip north when it battles Big Ten foe Purdue in Boston, Mass., on Sunday, Feb. 3, at 6 p.m. W&M returns home for a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday, Feb. 9, and Sunday, Feb. 10. The College will face Norfolk State at 9 a.m. on Saturday, before battling George Mason at 2 p.m. On Sunday, the Tribe meets No. 65 Northwestern at 11 a.m., before squaring off with Howard at 6 p.m.

#75 Harvard 4, #38 William and Mary 3
Singles
No. 1 – Chris Clayton (HU) def. Alex Cojanu (W&M) – 6-3, 4-6, 7-5
No. 2 – Ashwin Kumar (HU) def. Dominic Pagon (W&M) – 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
No. 3 – Keziel Juneau (W&M) def. Sasha Ermakov (HU) – 6-3, 6-4
No. 4 – Dan Nguyen (HU) def. Richard Wardell (W&M) – 5-7, 6-3, 6-2
No. 5 – Marwarn Ramadan (W&M) def. Aba Omodele-Lucien (HU) – 3-6, 7-5, 7-5
No. 6 – Will Guzick (HU) def. Alex Zuck (W&M) – 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
Finishing Order: 3, 2, 4, 6, 5, 1*

Doubles
No. 1 - #33 Cojanu/Juneau (W&M) vs. #14 Kumar/Ermakov (HU) – 9-8 (5)
No. 2 – Wardell/Zuck (W&M) def. Nguyen/Omodele-Lucien (HU) – 8-5
No. 3 – Pagon/Vidal (W&M) def. Clayton/Chijoff-Evans (HU) – 8-5
Finishing Order: 3, 2*, 1