NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. – No. 9 seeded Harvard men's tennis advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITA Indoor Nationals by defeating No. 8 seeded Columbia, 4-2, Friday night. With its win over the Lions, the Crimson advance to face No. 1 Ohio State Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. ET for a chance to advance to the ITA Indoor semifinals.

How it Happened

The Crimson started the day up 1-0 after winning at No. 2 and 3 doubles. Harvard carried the momentum over to singles play.
 
The Lions tied the match at 1 after picking up the first singles win of the day at the No. 5 spot. Harvard regained the lead after Daniel Milavsky grabbed a victory over Nicolas Kotzen (Columbia), 6-1, 7-5. The Lions quickly tied it back up at 2 with a win at the No. 4 position.
 
#12 Cooper Williams was able to secure a win at the No. 1 spot for the Crimson, defeating #15 Michael Zheng (Columbia), 6-3, 7-5. Although Zheng put some pressure on Williams, the first-year was able to pull out the victory and put Harvard up 3-2.
 
In his first match back for the Crimson, sophomore Valdemar Pape clinched for Harvard. Playing against Sachin Palta (Columbia) at the No. 6 position, Pape took the first set, 6-3, before heading into tiebreakers in the second set. Pape won the second set, 7-6 (4), to ultimately give the Crimson the 4-2 outcome. 

PAPE CLINCH.

The Crimson defeat the Lions as Harvard advances to take on No. 1 Ohio State tomorrow at 3:30 in the ITA Indoor quarterfinals ??#GoCrimson x #ITAIndoors pic.twitter.com/YN1WU6XiyK

— Harvard Men's Tennis (@HarvardMTennis) February 17, 2024

Results

Harvard – 4, Columbia – 2
Doubles

1. Theo Winegar/Michael Zheng (Columbia), def. #4 Cooper Williams/Daniel Milavsky, 6-4
2. Ronan Jachuck/Masato Perera def. #24 Nicolas Kotzen/Max Westphal (Columbia), 7-5
3. David Lins/Henry von der Schulenburg def Alex Kotzen/Sachin Palta, 6-2

Order of finish: 3, 1, 2

Singles

1. #12 Cooper Williams def. #15 Michael Zheng (Columbia), 6-3, 7-5
2. #101 Alex Kotzen (Columbia) vs. Henry von der Schulenburg, 7-6 (5), 3-6 DNF
3. Daniel Milavsky def. Nicolas Kotzen (Columbia), 6-1, 7-5
4. Max Westphal (Columbia) def. Ronan Jachuck, 6-2, 6-4
5. Hugo Hashimoto (Columbia) def. Melchior Delloye, 6-1, 6-4
6. Valdemar Pape def. Sachin Palta (Columbia), 6-3, 7-6 (4)

Order of finish: 5, 3, 4, 1, 6

Harvard Highlights

• With the win, Harvard improves its all-time record against Columbia to 71-22.
• Milavsky continues to stay strong, holding an 8-0 singles record this season.
• Registering his 11^th overall singles win, Cooper Williams picked up his fourth ranked victory of the spring by defeating the 15^th ranked player.
• In his first match this spring, Pape showed up big for the Crimson with his clinch at the No. 6 spot, earning his first win and first clinch of the season.
• #8 Harvard secured its third win over a ranked opponent this Spring after defeating #10 Columbia.

Next Up

With the win, Harvard advances to quarterfinals of the ITA Indoor National Championship Tournament. The Crimson will face No. 1 Ohio State at the Philip and Cheryl Milstein Family Tennis Center on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 3:30 p.m. ET.