The Harvard men’s tennis team is officially going dancing. On Tuesday evening, the 2013 NCAA Men’s Tournament bracket was finalized, and the Ivy League champion Crimson was selected to face No. 75 Samford in the first round.
No. 21 Harvard (18-5, 6-1 Ivy) will travel to Starkville, Miss. to the campus of Mississippi State University to take on the Bulldogs (15-9, 7-3 Southern Conference) on May 10. The Crimson qualified for the tournament for the second straight season after compiling a 6-1 conference record en route to its second consecutive Ivy title.
The Crimson officially earned its 21st overall appearance in the tournament on Saturday, when it claimed the Ivy title outright with a 6-1 win over Dartmouth in Hanover.
Last year, Harvard advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament, falling to Florida after defeating Virginia Tech in the first round.
Although the Crimson and the Bulldogs have never faced each other before, they do have one common opponent this season: Alabama. Harvard fell to the Crimson Tide, 4-1, on Feb. 1st, but Samford squeezed by them, 4-3, less than a week later.
The Crimson knows that it cannot take the Bulldogs lightly, despite their lower ranking, according to head coach Dave Fish.
“Their national ranking is lower because they haven’t played as tough a schedule as we have, but they are formidable,” he said. “Our impression of them is very strong. Alabama’s top two players beat our guys, but the Samford guys beat them. So it’ll be a very close match.”
The team thinks that its experience from last year will help it prepare for tournament play.
“Fortunately, four of our starters have gone through this before,” Fish said. “This is nothing we haven’t faced before. Our guys will be focused both to get work done for their upcoming exams and to prepare for our matches.”
Harvard’s holds a 14-21 overall record in tournament matches, and its best finish is its quarterfinal appearance in 1997. But the Crimson is not thinking that far ahead, and instead has a more focused set of goals.
“Everyone has the goal of getting to the first round matches and seeing if they can win two,” Fish said. “If we can do that, we make it to the Round of 16 at the University of Illinois, which is the big show.”
To get to Illinois, Harvard will first have to make it past the Bulldogs and then the host Mississippi State Bulldogs, whom it would face on May 11th.
“It’ll be tough, but very exciting and a nice championship experience,” Fish said. “But it’s a zero sum game. If you lose in the first round, you go home.”
