The men’s tennis team will travel to Texas over spring break for their annual training trip. While in Texas, they will play four matches, including one against No. 55 ranked Texas Christian University. Columbia will take on Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas at Arlington and University of Texas at San-Antonio in addition to TCU on their trip.
“It’s not ideal to go and play good teams outside,” said head coach Bid Goswami, “I know we play 10 to 15 percent worse outdoors, but we get to hit a lot of balls and practice outside.”
Last season, the Lions went 1-2 on their trip, facing all of the same teams except Texas-San Antonio.
Texas Christian will be the first opponent on the trip. TCU enters the match coming off a huge win over No. 24 Tulsa, defeating them 6-1 at home. The Horned Frogs won an incredibly tight doubles point in that match, winning it 11-9 in a third doubles tie break. With momentum on their side, they ran away with the singles matches, including impressive wins at No. 1 and 2 singles.
“TCU is a good team,” Goswami said.
Top singles player Slah Mbarek defeated the No. 115 player in the nation in straight sets, and No. 2 singles player Zach Nichols defeated the No. 31 player in the nation in three sets as well.
The doubles point will be decisive against TCU, as they have won the doubles point in five of their past seven matches this spring. Last season, they defeated the Lions 7-0, despite the fact that the top three singles matches each went to three sets.
SMU will welcome Columbia to its home courts with a record of 7-6 this season, and will come in with a win over Memphis in its most recent outing, despite having dropped the three matches before that.
“SMU is a little weaker this year,” said Goswami, “but they are a good team. I don’t think their ranking reflects it, but they will be tough on their home courts.”
SMU comes into this matchup winless against ranked teams, but 7-1 against everyone else. The Mustangs are led by top singles player Artem Baradach, who has gone 7-4 this season. Baradach is coming off an impressive win against the No. 7 player in the nation, Dimitar Kutrovsky from Texas.
UT-Arlington currently has a record of 2-5 this season, including an early season loss to TCU, 5-2. Arlington is led by junior Brieuc Hamon, its No. 2 singles player, who was just named as the Southland Conference’s men’s tennis player of the week. Hamon went 1-0 in singles and doubles, posting easy wins over his opponents from UT-Dallas.
UT-San Antonio is a new opponent for Columbia this season. It enters with a record of 5-6 this spring, and is coming off a 4-3 win against St. Louis, at home. The top singles player for UT-Arlington has been Tyler Brown, who has gone 5-6 this season, splitting time between the No. 1 and 2 positions.
One of the main reasons that the Lions go to Texas is the opportunity to prepare for the possibility of outdoor play once Ivy play begins after spring break.
“We might play outside against Brown and Yale,” said Goswami, “and that’s right after the Harvard match, so we need to get used to being outside. Also in Texas, if it rains all of these places have indoor courts, and the weather is similar to what it will be here two or three weeks later.”
Although the Lions will see some stiff competition over their trip, Goswami has a simple goal in mind.
“I go to win all of the matches,” he said.
Columbia’s first match will be Tuesday, March 16, when they take on No. 55 TCU.
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