Rochester is always a big match on our calendar. We knew that with their strong freshman class, they would be much tougher than their #5 ranking.
Rochester took the lead after their #3 Neil Cordell beat Dylan Murray in three. The Crimson bounced back quickly though with Sam Goldberg at #9 and Devin McLaughlin at #6 winning their matches 3-1 and 3-2 respectively.
Bradley Smith won the first game at #2 but eventually lost in four. Mandela Patrick at #8 wasn't able to get a game off of his opponent but at the same time, Matt Roberts at #5 played one of the best matches of his college career: Roberts came back from 0-1 down to win in four and leveled the overall score at 3-3.
Madhav Dhingra at #1 didn't have his best day and his talented opponent won fairly comfortably in three. That gave Rochester a 4-3 lead and meant that Harvard needed to win both of the remaining matches. After Tyler Olson at #7 finished off his solid weekend with a close 3-1 win, it was all up to Bryan Koh at #4. Koh struggled at the beginning as his opponent was controlling the middle very well. Koh went down 0-2 but came back strong in the third. After winning the third, he even had a couple of game balls in the fourth but his opponent stayed in it and eventually won 13-11 and clinched the match.
Full results:
The coaches think that the team played a lot better than yesterday against St. Lawrence. Many of the players made necessary adjustments and were able to overcome difficult circumstances successfully. Considering that we're still missing a few players due to injuries, we think that the weekend was a solid one and serves as good preparation for the rest of the season.
While the men were on the road this weekend, the women's team and the men's JV team were playing scrimmages at Harvard. The women also played one official match against Boston College today and won comfortably 9-0. The round robin at home was a great experience for players down the ladders as they don't get many chances to play other schools.
The players are now focusing on their final exams. The season continues in January with matches against Princeton, Penn and F&M before our international trip to the Cayman Islands.
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