Princeton Tops 30th-Ranked Harvard to Open Final Ivy Weekend

Saturday, April 21

Cambridge, Mass.

1:00 PM

Princeton University

Harvard

Payton Holden had the clinching win for Princeton at sixth singles.

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

Princeton Tops 30th-Ranked Harvard to Open Final Ivy Weekend

April 21, 2018 | Men's Tennis

Opening the final weekend of Ivy League play Saturday, the Princeton men's tennis team beat 30th-ranked Harvard 4-3 in Cambridge.

The Tigers will wrap the regular season Sunday at 1 p.m. at Dartmouth. Updates on Twitter will be available at @PtonMensTennis.

"I'm proud of our guys for hanging in there today against a good Harvard team on their home courts," Princeton coach Billy Pate said. "They had our backs against the wall in the middle-to-later stages of the match. Payton (Holden) had come up on the short end on so many deuce points and (Harvard's Andrew) Ball had a lot of momentum. But Payton showed a lot of resolve and grit to keep battling when he was down 5-1. It's a quick turnaround to get to Hanover for a battle with league-leading Dartmouth tomorrow."

The win moved Princeton to 3-3 in Ivy League play.

The Tigers opened by taking the doubles point, including getting a 6-3 win over Harvard's 85th-ranked pair of Kenny Tao and Logan Weber from Luke Gamble and Damian Rodriguez. Holden and Ryan Seggerman tied up the doubles point with a 6-1 win at second before Gamble's and Rodriguez's clincher.

Singles play began with three Harvard wins to put the Crimson one match from victory, but the Tigers rallied with wins from Gamble at second in straight sets, Davey Roberts at fifth in three sets and then Holden's clinching win at sixth for the fourth point of the afternoon.

Doubles
1. Gamble/Rodriguez (Princeton) def. #85 Tao/Logan Weber (Harvard), 6-3
2. Holden/Seggerman (Princeton) def. Christopher Morrow/Solomon (Harvard), 6-1
3. Thirouin/Wrzesinski (Harvard) def. Ben Tso/Diego Vives (Princeton) 6-1

Singles
1. Kenny Tao (Harvard) def. Kial Kaiser (Princeton), 6-1, 6-3
2. Luke Gamble (Princeton) def. Andy Zhou (Harvard), 6-1, 6-3
3. Jean Thirouin (Harvard) def. Ryan Seggerman (Princeton), 7-5, 7-5
4. Robert Wrzesinski (Harvard) def. Damian Rodriguez (Princeton), 6-3, 6-4
5. Davey Roberts (Princeton) def. Grant Solomon (Harvard), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
6. Payton Holden (Princeton) def. Andrew Ball (Harvard), 6-3, 4-6, 7-5