Wildcats Fall Short in 5-2 Match at #73 Harvard in M. Tennis

Friday, February 11

Cambridge, Mass.

4:00 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

No. 73 Harvard

Wildcats Fall Short in 5-2 Match at #73 Harvard in M. Tennis

2/12/2011 3:26:34 PM | Men's Tennis

Gavin McFarlin -- Assistant SID

Match Results

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Coming off an upset of nationally ranked USC Upstate, Davidson was hoping for its second straight win over a ranked opponent, but fell short in a 5-2 decision at No. 73 Harvard on Friday afternoon.

The Wildcats (2-4) were playing their fourth ranked opponent to open the season, and second straight, as they held their own against the Crimson (3-3). The 'Cats have also played top-75 teams in N.C. State, Clemson and just last week, USC Upstate.

Davidson fell behind 1-0 early as Harvard captured all three doubles matches, but the Wildcats battled to the end. Joe Schafer (Orchard Park, N.Y.) and teammate Calum Gee (Ayr, Scotland) scored wins in six games, but fell 8-6 in their match at No. 1. Also playing down to the wire was the team of Walker Lyons (Wallingford, Pa.) and freshman Ethan Kallick (Pittsburgh, Pa.) at No. 2 as they also picked up wins in six games, but fell 8-6.

Harvard then took four of the six singles matches for the 5-2 win. The Wildcats two team points came from Lyons and Gee at No. 4 and 5. Lyons ran his singles mark to 4-1 with a straight set 6-3, 6-3 win over Andy Nguyen.

Gee forced a third-set super tiebreaker when he regrouped after dropping a 6-3 first-set match to score a 7-6 second-set tiebreaker win. He then earned a 10-8 victory in the super tiebreaker in the third set.

Schafer and Chris Mark (Union City, Calif.) tried to give the Wildcats another pair of singles wins, each going into a three-set. Schafer took his first set against Jonathan Pearlman (6-3), but dropped a pair of 6-3 decisions in the second and third sets to fall to 4-2 on the season at No. 1 singles.

Mark trailed after one set, but came back to score a 6-2 decision in the second set, before falling 6-4 in the final set of his singles match.

Harvard also earned a 7-0 win over Quinnipiac earlier in the day for a sweep of its two matches on the day.

Davidson will close out its Northeast trip with a 1 p.m. match against Brown on Saturday.