Junior Mac McAnulty, freshman Brendan Seaver, and classmate John Thornton lost their matches soon afterward.
In McAnulty and Seaver’s games, both won their first frames, but the Stag players were able to rebound, taking the next two sets.
“This coming week we’re going to practice more doubles to sharpen our skills a bit,” Tchan said. “In singles, we’re going to continue to push each other and work hard.”
HARVARD 5, ILLINOIS STATE 2
After dropping three straight doubles matches against Illinois State (10-5), Harvard was able to secure a victory by decisively defeating the Redbirds in five of six singles matches.
Though all three doubles matches were relatively close, the Crimson was unable to pull out any victories.
The team of sophomore Andy Nguyen and junior Alistair Felton played well against the Illinois State pair of senior Filip Miljevic and freshman Mya Smith-Dennis on the second court, but they still fell 8-7.
“Illinois State was a really tough match for us,” Tchan said. “It was our first match since spring break. We started playing rusty in the doubles, and we just weren’t playing as well we could have [played].”
But the doubles matches did not deter Harvard during the singles matches, as the Crimson shook off its spring break rust.
“We played really well coming out of the box playing singles,” Fish said. “They got out to a lead in just about every match, which tends to put a lot of pressure on the other team.”
On the first court, nationally-ranked junior Jonathan Pearlman defeated Redbird sophomore Alexander Pelaez, 6-2, 6-4.
The Crimson had similar success on courts three through five as Felton, Nguyen, and freshman Casey MacMaster cruised past their opponents in straight sets.
Tchan had a tougher match, winning the first set, 6-2, but losing the second, 7-6. In the final set tiebreak, Tchan was able to muster a win, 10-6.
The only loss that Harvard suffered in singles play was at court two, where captain Aba Omodele-Lucien was blanked by Illinois State senior Timon Reichelt, 7-5, 7-5.
After the victories, the Crimson has more confidence heading into matches against Cornell and Columbia next weekend.
“We play what is considered the top [Ivy] team in Cornell on Friday,” Fish said. “There are a lot of good teams, but there’s nobody that’s unbeatable. We’ll see what happens; we’ll be one of those good teams but better.”