The Columbia men’s tennis team advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 this past weekend, notching two victories over the weekend.
The Lions’ were hosting the first two rounds of the tournament after winning the Ivy League title outright, playing first at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens before being forced inside to its on-campus courts at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center due to rain.
On Friday afternoon, Columbia dealt with the cold and rain, to defeat the Bryant Bulldogs 4-0 on the outdoor courts of the National Tennis Center.
After taking the doubles point and winning two singles matches, Columbia clinched the first-round victory as Austen Huang notched a 6-3, 6-2 win over Michael Plutt in the sixth singles flight.
That victory placed the Lions into a second round showdown against the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday afternoon.
Columbia entered the matchup with Penn State with an 11-0 record at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center. The Lions would remain undefeated at home and defeated Penn State 4-0 to book its spot in the Super Regionals.
This team match would be clinched on the third singles court, as Adam Ambrozy defeated Gabriel Nemeth 7-6(4), 6-0 to clinch Columbia’s win, and push it into the final 16.
“It feels amazing,” senior Victor Pham, who was named the 2019 Ivy League Player of the Year, told GoColumbiaLions.com. “It was a season-long goal to make it to the Sweet 16 and actually even beyond that, but we’re setting ourselves up to reach our goal. It can be our last match every match basically with the single-elimination format, and to do it for Bid, it’s his last season, so I think we’re all really enjoying it. This is a really special crew, so I think we can go further.”
Columbia now moves into a matchup with the tournament’s top-seed: the Ohio State Buckeyes. The match is slated for Saturday, May 11 in Columbus, Ohio.
