Princeton men’s tennis sweep weekend at ECAC Indoor Championships

On Sunday afternoon, Princeton men’s tennis (8–4 overall) were crowned victors at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Indoor Championships after a weekend of undefeated play. They started their triumphant run off strong with a 5–0 win over the Brown Bears (3–10), followed by a solid 4–3 victory over the Yale Bulldogs (6–3).

The Princeton squad started their weekend with a controlling win over the Brown Bears on Friday afternoon. Sophomore team members Sebastian Sec and Ellis Short clutched the doubles point to start off play. The singles result proved to be disastrous for the Bears as the Tigers emerged undefeated with straight-set wins from first-years Paul Inchauspe, Fnu Nidunjianzan, and Landon Ardila. With this victory, Princeton advanced to the ECAC semifinals.

Reflecting on first-year performance, men’s tennis volunteer assistant coach Jason Kros shared to The Daily Princetonian “having a young team is always a fun experiment, and seeing where we are has been really cool.” He continued “we’ve seen what our sophomores and juniors have experienced the last couple of years, and seen where they’ve built off. Now, they get to use that experience and show it to our freshmen.”

On Saturday, the Tigers reproduced a win at the Hamlin and Hecht Tennis Centers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, against the Yale Bulldogs. The Bulldogs proved to be resilient opponents, opening the match by clinching a doubles point over Princeton. Sophomore duo Sec and Short once again proved to be a successful pairing as they won their match 7–5, despite the Tigers losing the point overall.

For singles games, the match-ups positioned the Tigers and Bulldogs head-to-head, and the Tigers ‘ping-ponged’ their way to the finals. First-year Aleksandar Mitric established the advantage with a solid (6–3, 6–2) win. Yale followed up with a swift win of their own at the third-singles spot (6–4, 6–2). Princeton answered with a comeback win from Short (3–6, 6–2, 6–2). This Tiger triumph was mirrored by a Bulldog clutch at the fourth spot (1–6, 6–4, 6–4). Princeton gathered the force to close it out with consecutive wins from top-spot first-years, Inchauspe (5–7, 6–3, 6–3) and Nidunjianzan (6–4, 4–6, 7–5).

Sunday play concluded the Tigers’ winning weekend. Princeton once again started off the day’s competition against the University of Pennsylvania Quakers, with a doubles point fumble. However, even with the upper-hand, the Quakers were completely swept off the court in the singles. First in singles, Inchauspe double-bageled his opponent by winning both sets, 6–0. Soon after, singles Nidunjianzan defeated another Quaker swiftly (6–2, 6–0). The remainder of the matches followed suit with the Tigers sweeping No. 3 and No. 4 singles as well, not dropping a single singles set to claim the ECAC Championship title.

The coaches were impressed with the maturity and composure of the players throughout the weekend’s results. Kros reflected “we [saw] the freshmen build on their previous matches and the sophomores grow as well. It’s really fun for us coaches, because we can really see them growing as tennis players and people.”

With this result, the Tigers entered the ECAC Championship finals and sealed the deal with a final 4–1 triumph over the University of Pennsylvania Quakers (8–5). The Tigers now sit comfortably at the top of ECAC standings and with an overall season record of 8–4.

Next up, Princeton men’s tennis (31st ITA) will face off at the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic February 23–24th. The Tigers will be opening against Old Dominion University (47th ITA) (9–1 overall, 0–0 Sun Belt Conference) in Montgomery, Alabama and hoping for another notable win.

Josefina Gurevich is a Sports staff writer for the ‘Prince.’

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