May 10, 2014
| #31 Harvard 4, #42 Auburn 1 | ||
| Men's Singles Results | ||
| No. 1 | #52 Ollert (AU) vs. #39 Nguyen (HU) | 3-6, 6-3, 5-1, uf |
| No. 2 | #62 Cochrane (AU) vs. Beltrame (HU) | 4-6, 7-5, 1-1, uf |
| No. 3 | Chadhuri (HU) def. Lengsfeld (AU) | 6-1, 6-2 |
| No. 4 | Steinroeder (HU) def. Van Dooren (AU) | 6-3, 6-1 |
| No. 5 | Yeung (HU) def. Saleh (AU) | 6-3, 7-6 (0) |
| No. 6 | Hu (HU) def. Plaskett (AU) | 6-0, 6-3 |
| Order of Finish | 6, 3, 4, 5 | |
| Men's Doubles Results | ||
| No. 1 | #19 Nguyen/MacMaser (HU) def. Cochrane/Ollert (AU) | 8-4 |
| No. 2 | Lengsfeld/Saleh (AU) def. #85 Hu/Yeung (HU) | 8-6 |
| No. 3 | Van Dooren/Plaskett (AU) def. Beltrame/Schultz (HU) | 8-6 |
| Order of Finish | 2, 1, 3 | |
NORMAN, Okla. - The Auburn men's tennis used a revamped doubles lineup to take an early lead over No. 31 Harvard, but it was not enough as the Tigers fell, 4-1, Saturday in the first round of the NCAA Men's Tennis Championships at the Headington Family Tennis Center.
The Tigers finish the season at 14-14 overall while making its 15th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and its 20th in the last 21 seasons under head coach Eric Shore. With the win, Harvard (18-6) advances to play the winner of No. 2 Oklahoma and Montana in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
"We won the doubles and I thought we had some energy going into singles," Shore said. ""Give Harvard credit for winning the first set in all six matches. We pushed back at Nos. 1, 2 and 5 and if Dante (Saleh) wins that breaker on court five we are there. He lost, but he played hard. We are soft at certain spots for various reasons, which cost us this match and the season."
Auburn started out the match in dominant fashion, taking the doubles point with wins on courts two and three. Each tandem in Auburn's lineup on Saturday had yet to play with one another this season, but gave the Tigers a boost against Harvard to start the match.
Dennis Lengsfeld and Dante Saleh were the first off the court with an 8-6 win on court two to start the match. Harvard's duo of Denis Nguyen and Casey MacMaser dropped Auburn's Daniel Cochrane and Lukas Ollert, 8-4, on court one.
Joseph Van Dooren and Oliver Plaskett clinched the doubles point for the Tigers with an 8-6 victory at the No. 3 line. The lineup shakeup provided Auburn with its first win in doubles since March 11 versus Alabama.
In singles, Harvard won four straight-set matches to take the match from Auburn. Plaskett, who was inserted into the singles lineup following doubles, fell to the Crimson's Nicky Hu, 6-3, 6-0 on court six, which tied the match at 1-1. Harvard took the lead for good behind Shaun Chadhuri's 6-1, 6-2 win over Lengsfeld on court three.
At the No. 4 line, Van Dooren was defeated by Harvard's Alex Steinroeder to push the match to 3-1 in favor of the Crimson. Saleh fell in straight sets on court five, dropping the first set and losing the second in a tiebreaker 7-6 (0).
Ollert dropped the first set in his match, but had rallied to steal the second and was leading 5-1 in the third set when play was halted. Cochrane had done the same in similar fashion, winning the second set to force a deciding set on court two.
Although, the team season is over Auburn's Lukas Ollert will represent the Tigers at the NCAA Individual Championships in Athens, Ga. which starts May 21.
For complete coverage on the Auburn men's tennis team, visit AuburnTigers.com, follow @MensTennisAU on Twitter and `like' the Auburn Men's Tennis page on Facebook.