“[Those are] eally difficult conditions,” Nguyen admitted, “especially with people almost hovering right on your court. I thought that, in a sense, Brown needed all of that to make the match as close as it was.”
And it was close, right down to the wire. The 5-2 score was, according to Fish, “so deceptive, because there was no easy match for us to win out there.”
The final doubles match of Lingman and Riddell appeared all the more important in retrospect. Though the doubles point was only one of the Crimson’s five, it proved the impetus Harvard would need.
“It gave us a lot of momentum,” Nguyen said, “and it stopped their momentum. And it helped at least show to ourselves, and maybe to them, that the crowd can’t intimidate us and help them win.”