MacMaster and Omodele-Lucien lost to Eugen Brazdil and Hicham Laalej, 8-4, and Pearlman and Tchan followed with a 9-7 loss to Zach Katz and Ivan Turudic.

Felton and Nguyen pushed their opponents into the tiebreak, but eventually Nikola Kocovic and Mark Milbrandt came out victorious, 13-11, in the breaker for a 9-8 win.

“It was pretty interesting, because after we lost the doubles point, the Penn team was celebrating as if they had already won the match,” Nguyen said. “Coach [Fish] talked to us and said ‘They already think they’ve won,’ and told us that if we fight and do what we need to do, we could win the match.”

Despite the three losses in the doubles matches, Harvard rebounded to win five of six singles matches, three of them in straight sets.

Tchan dropped just four games in total en route to a 6-0, 6-4 victory. Omodele-Lucien battled in two close sets to earn another point for his squad, 6-4, 6-4.

Pearlman and Nguyen also pulled out key victories for the Crimson but needed three sets to do so.

Pearlman’s opponent, Laalej, steamrolled the Harvard No. 1 in the first set, 6-2, but then Pearlman battled back in the second to take it 7-5 and even the match at one set apiece.

Pearlman eventually prevailed in the third set, 6-3.

Similarly, Nguyen dropped the opening set to Jason Lin, 6-4, but he then turned the match around in the second and third sets. Nguyen earned the victory 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

“[After the first set], I figured out that trying to drive the ball through the court wasn’t going to work, because he was getting all of the balls back,” Nguyen said. “I started to hit more angles, and it gave me more room to dictate with my forehand ... I knew I could come back. It was close, and I fought.”

—Staff writer Steven T. A. Roach can be reached at sroach@fas.harvard.edu.