Columbia Beats Cornell To Win ECAC Championships

February 20, 2017 | By New York Tennis Magazine Staff
Columbia men's tennis
Credit photo to ECAC Sports

The Columbia men’s tennis team won all three of its weekend matches at the East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships at Princeton University, culminating in a 4-1 victory over Cornell on Sunday to win its first ECAC Championship since 2014.

The Lions entered the weekend ranked 19th in the country and played like the best team in the field. It downed the Red Storm of St. John’s 4-0 in its first match on Friday, and then defeated Dartmouth 4-0 on Saturday to reach the final.

In Sunday’s final, Columbia was able to earn the doubles point to start things off. Despite losing the first doubles flight, Michal Rolski and Christopher Grant won 6-1 over Lev Kazakov and Dylan Brown at third doubles, and 14th ranked Victor Pham and Richard Pham knocked off Chris Vrabel and Bernando Casres to give the Lions the early advantage.

Shawn Hadavi, last year’s Ivy League Player of the Year, squared off against Cornell’s top man David Volfson in the first singles flight, and Hadavi cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 win to bolster the Columbia lead.

Cornell’s Colin Sinclair trimmed the deficit to 2-1 when he beat Alex Keyser 6-1, 6-2 at fourth singles, but William Matheson knocked off Daniel Grunberger and Victor Pham beat Kazakov 6-2, 6-3 to seal the team victory for Columbia.

Columbia will be off for the next week but will return to action beginning this weekend. It hosts St. John’s on Sunday and Binghamton the following Saturday, both at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.

Below are the full results from Sunday’s final:
 

Singles 
1) No. 39 Shawn Hadavi def. David Volfson, 6-3, 6-1
2) No. 87 Victor Pham def. Lev Kazakov, 6-2, 6-3
3) No. 100 Jackie Tang unf. No. 114 Chris Vrabel, 3-6, 6-1
4) Colin Sinclair def. Alex Keyser, 6-1, 6-2
5) William Matheson def. Daniel Grunberger, 6-3, 6-1
6) Timothy Wang unf. Bernardo Casares, 3-6, 4-3

Doubles
1) Sinclair/Volfson def. No. 30 Hadavi/Tang, 6-3
2) No. 14 Pham/Pham def. Vrabel/Casares, 6-4
3) Rolski/Grant def. Kazakov/Brown, 6-1

 


New York Tennis Magazine Staff
Centercourt
USTA NTC

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