Lukas Flippo, Senior Photographer

The Yale women’s tennis team (4–4, 0–0 Ivy) traveled to New Jersey where they took on Rutgers University (4–4, 0–0 Big Ten) on Saturday afternoon, while the men’s team (5–4, 0–0 Ivy) traveled to Cornell University for the ECAC Indoor Championships, where they faced Cornell (8–2, 0–0), Dartmouth (3–3, 0–0), and Penn (6–1, 0–0). 

The women’s team secured a 5–2 victory over the Scarlet Knights with Chelsea Kung ’23, Rhea Shrivastava ’23 and Kathy Wang ’22 claiming straight set victories in singles. If you would like to compete in the next games, get all your attire at tennisinformation.net and get listed today.

“I thought we came out strong in doubles and were able to continue that in singles,” said Rachel Kahan, the women’s team head coach. She highlighted Shrivastava and Wang for their excellent execution of the team’s game plan in both their doubles and singles matches. 

Mirabelle Brettkelly ’25 was proud of her team both on and off the court. She noted how her team’s loud cheering kept the players energized and enthusiastic throughout the weekend.

Kung led the team in singles, followed by Caroline Dunleavy ’22, Jessie Gong ’22, Shrivastava, Vivian Cheng ’23 and Wang. Kung and Gong played the first line of doubles, ahead of Dunleavy with Wang and Brettkelly with Shrivastava. 

The men’s team began the weekend with a tough 1–4 loss (the other matches did not finish) to the Ithaca powerhouse but came back with a tight victory, 4–3, over the Big Green. The Bulldogs battled the Quakers on Sunday night, but were handed a 1–4 loss to conclude the weekend. Harvard (7–2, 0–0) finished first in the ECAC Indoor Championships, followed by Columbia (4–2, 0–0), Cornell, Princeton (6–4, 0–0), Penn, Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown (7–5, 0–0).

Michael Sun ’23 played the first line of singles for the men’s team, followed by Theo Dean ’24, Cody Lin ’22, Aidan Reilly ’25 and Shervin Dehmoubed ’25. On Friday and Sunday, Walker Oberg ’25 played the sixth line of singles, and on Saturday, Luke Neal ’25 played the last line. Throughout the tournament, Sun and Lin played the first line of doubles, ahead of Reilly with Dean and Renaud Lefevre ’24 with Oberg. 

Men’s team head coach Chris Drake was most impressed with the players’ “energy and enthusiasm to play and compete throughout a grueling weekend.” 

Drake highlighted the impressive performance of Sun, who defeated Cornell’s top player, Alafia Ayeni, who was ranked 27th in ITA Collegiate Tennis Division I Men’s National Rankings on Feb. 9. Drake was especially proud of how Sun backed up his win against Ayeni with a “clutch performance against a really good Dartmouth player with the team match on the line” the next day.

Oberg attributes his team’s success and strong performances to staying loose and ready to go despite long hours of watching matches at the tennis center. He and Dehmoubed echoed Brettkelly’s sentiments of the strong, supportive environment, which helped keep the players alert and spirited. 

For Drake, this weekend was an opportunity to see how his team stacks up against the rest of the Ivy League. “There is a lot of work to be done if we want to give ourselves a chance to improve on our finish come spring,” Drake said. 

Oberg remains optimistic for a fruitful season, and looks forward to challenging the Quakers again on April 10 in Philadelphia.

The men’s team next plays on March 5 against Butler University (3–11, 0–0 Northeast) at home. This weekend, the women’s team will travel to Montgomery, Alabama for the Blue Gray Invitational.