Hu and Yeung went down on court two, but Schultz and Beltrame picked up the slack and picked up a few breaks en route to an 8-4 win that gave Harvard the 1-0 advantage.

Steinroeder set the tone early in singles, cruising to a 6-3, 6-1 win. Yeung, who won all four of his matches last weekend, continued his strong Ivy season on Friday. The freshman served his way to victory in a 6-2, 6-3 defeat of Ivan Kravtchenko on the fifth court, giving the Crimson a commanding 3-0 lead.

Despite losses by Chaudhuri and Beltrame, Nguyen, ranked 40th in the country in singles, won his heavyweight battle, 6-4, 6-1, to seal the final margin.

Although the team may be disappointed by not taking first place, it still has had may positive takeaways from its Ivy season, according to Chaudhuri.

“The whole goal was to improve and became a better team overall,” the junior said. “Each of us has evolved to where we are now. Anything short of first is obviously a bit of a letdown, but hats off to Columbia.”

Harvard has one more match in its Ivy season against Dartmouth, with which it is tied for second in the conference. From there, the Crimson must hold out hope that its ranking is high enough to qualify for an at-large berth for the NCAA Championships.

64 teams qualify for the tournament, and after factoring in automatic bids for conference winners, the Crimson will be fighting for a limited number of spots.

“In the past, a top-40 team has been considered safe enough to get an at-large bid,” Chaudhuri explained. “Right now, we’re right on the edge. We have one more match to get through.”

—Staff writer Justin C. Wong can be reached at justin.wong@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter at @justincwong94.