Yale Athletics

This weekend, the Yale men’s tennis team (10–5, 0–0 Ivy) wrapped up non-conference play with a 4–0 win over St. John’s University (10–5, 0–0 Big East). 

This game extended the Bulldogs’ win streak to three, following a successful run through central and northern California, where the team defeated California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (4–8, 0–1 Big Sky) and Santa Clara University (11–7, 3–2 West Coast). On Friday, the Bulldogs blanked the Johnnies, earning the doubles point and taking three singles points before the remaining matches were pulled.

“I’m really proud that our team was able to reverse last year’s result,” Walker Oberg ’25 said.

Last year, the team fell to the Johnnies 2–5 in Cullman-Heyman.

The doubles duos of Theo Dean ’24 and Aidan Reilly ’25 and Eric Li ’26 and Michael Sun ’23 dominated in doubles, gaining victories of 6–3 and 7–5 respectively. In singles, Vignesh Gogineni ’26 defeated Sergio Molina with a 6–3, 6–2 win.

“The highlight of our match was probably just winning my singles match and getting a fast point on the board,” said Gogineni.

Dean’s singles match against Diogo Marques went to the third set before being pulled after the Blue and White won their fourth point. Li defeated Giuseppe De Camelis and Oberg trounced Ryota Kaneda, taking away wins of 6–4, 6–4 and 6–3, 6–2, respectively.

“I think the highlight was Eric Li getting his first dual match win at No. 5 singles,” head coach Chris Drake said. “He was also able to clinch the match by earning our fourth point.”

Prior to the St. John’s match, the team competed throughout California, where Yale took on the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Santa Barbara, Cal Poly and Santa Clara.

While they collected two losses in their first two matches of their California saga against UCLA and UCSB, the Bulldogs ended the trip with two wins against Santa Clara and St. John’s.

“Our win over Santa Clara was a nice statement as they beat us 4–0 last year,” Drake said. “This year we were able to turn the tables and beat them soundly. It was nice to see a direct comparison from last year and see the progress we’ve made.”

Going into their match against the Elis, UCSB was ranked No. 38 nationally. The Blue and White nearly eked out a win over the Gauchos, ultimately falling just 3–4. Similarly, the Elis almost toppled the No. 34 Bruins in Los Angeles, only losing by one point.

This weekend, the team will start conference play. They will host Harvard University on Friday and travel to Hanover to take on Dartmouth College on Sunday.

“I’m most excited for Penn because it’s a great opportunity against a highly ranked team on our home courts,” Gogineni said.

Columbia leads national rankings for the Ivy League, currently ranked at No. 10. They are trailed by Harvard at No. 11, Cornell at No. 29, Princeton at No. 49, Penn at No. 60 and Yale at No. 72.

Within the Ivy League, rankings shift slightly. Yale comes in at No. 6, ahead of just Brown and Dartmouth. Harvard tops the table.