Andrienko, Hagermoser, Photiades Notch Three-Set Victories in Narrow 4-3 Loss to Brown
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Yale men's tennis team played its final match of the season on Saturday, taking on Brown away from home in one of the most thrilling season finales in recent memory. In a back-and-forth marathon affair, both sides competed with fierce intensity and showed why the Ivy League is truly one of the strongest conferences in the country. Although the Bears ultimately won Saturday's clash by a single-point margin, the Bulldogs can exit with heads high after an impressive all-around performance; particularly remarkable was the performance of Yale's Fedor Andrienko, Alex Hagermoser and Photos Photiades, who all claimed three-set singles victories over tough opponents.
Saturday's match began with a pivotal round of doubles. Yale's Photiades and Martin Svenning were first to draw blood with a dominant performance at No. 2 doubles, topping Brown's Jack Haworth and Charles Tan 6-2. This result concluded a strong season for Yale's No. 2 duo, who posted a 10-5 record together after joining forces in February. The Bears immediately bounced back in the No. 1 spot, however, as Brown's Greg Garcia and Peter Tarwid secured a 6-3 victory. With the doubles point ultimately coming down to a tight match at the No. 3 position, Yale's Jason Brown and Alex Hagermoser fought to seize the moment; after leveling the match 5-5, however, Brown's Mitak and Sandberg managed to pull away and take the match 7-5.
After securing the doubles point, Brown came out confidently in singles. Yale's Ziqi Wang and Svenning fell first in straight sets at No. 1 and No. 4 singles, respectively; Stefan Doehler also lost a tough match to Brown's No. 5 player Aaron Sandberg. Although Doehler nearly staged a comeback in the second set, the sophomore ultimately came up just short in a tiebreak to fall 6-3, 7-6. Even with Saturday's loss, Doehler finished the 2015-16 season strong, posting a 10-2 record in his final 12 matches.
With the remaining three matches making it to a third set, the Elis ended Saturday's match in truly memorable fashion. At No. 3 singles, Hagermoser pulled off a stunning comeback against Mladen Mitak to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; this victory marked a significant milestone for the Bulldog, who suffered a straight-set defeat to the Brown player this past October.
Similar to Hagermoser's nail-biter in the middle of the lineup, Fedor Andrienko played a wire-to-wire match of his own in the No. 2 spot. Despite dropping the first set 6-4 to Brown's Garcia, Andrienko never faltered in pressuring his opponent; and after grinding out two tough sets, the Bulldog ultimately earned a 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory. Considering Garcia nearly pushed Tulane's Dominik Koepfer (the No. 2 player in the nation) to a third set just a month ago, Andrienko's three-set win on Saturday may be the best of his career so far.
Yale's No. 6 player Photos Photiades also came through in the clutch on Saturday. After winning the first set of his match 7-5 and dropping the second 6-4, Photiades held on in the super tiebreak to edge Brown's Charles Tan and conclude the match for the Elis on a high note.
Although the Bulldogs will be disappointed to end the season with a 4-3 loss, the intensely competitive nature of Saturday's match will undoubtedly serve the team's younger players well going forward. As for the seniors Brown and Svenning, Saturday's match certainly allows them to walk away from collegiate tennis with their heads held high. For most of the year, the two seniors not only managed to hold together a team that faced an extraordinary number of setbacks (foremost being the loss of star Tyler Lu to injury), but also led the squad to considerable success. Such invaluable leadership will be sorely missed.
Report by Cameron Ferguson '18, Yale Sports Publicity
FULL RESULTS -- Brown 4, Yale 3
