The AU Men's Tennis team seemed to be losing its grasp on Patriot League superiority against Army on early Sunday afternoon.
With the dual meet tied at three, AU senior Tushar Garg, playing in the second seed, trailed Army's Rafael Albornoz 4-1 in the third set with no other matches to play. And in the past, AU has been known to drop higher-seed singles games.
But Garg wouldn't hear it. Instead, he won five straight games, breaking Albornoz's serve twice en route to a match-deciding 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 victory.
"I've played him before," Garg said, "and he's a player that flashes by hitting big shots. But I knew if I kept my composure, and kept grinding it out, that he was going to give [the match] to me."
Garg's come-from-behind win secured a perfect weekend for AU, after it defeated Lehigh, 7-0, the day before in College Park, Md., and Boston College, 5-2, at home, only hours after the Army victory. Further, AU, now 2-0 in the 2004 PL season, held its top position in the conference, and thwarted a hungry Army team that lost to the Eagles 4-2 in last season's PL finals. Army and Colgate used to dominate PL tennis.
"It gets tougher," Garg said. "Colgate and Army were the main competitors, and we've taken it from them. They've been hungry, but now it's more than that - they're desperate."
Garg lost as the first seed against Army in the 2003 finals, making his individual victory this year even sweeter. As a team, AU's victories mark what it hopes is a turning point in a slow-starting season, one that will lead it to a third straight PL title.
"It's the best weekend we've had all season," said AU head coach Martin Blackman. "Three weeks ago after we lost to Radford was a low point. We told guys what we thought about the way they were competing. We really laid into them. They responded as competitors."
AU's win over Lehigh was the most impressive, Blackman said. In it, the Eagles never dropped a set, let alone a singles or doubles match. Against Boston College, AU rested almost as easily, with singles victories from sixth-seeded freshman Jason Harris and fourth-seeded Andreas Kulscar securing the win, despite both playing higher seeds than usual.
Against Army however, the singles split, 3-3. In the end, the Eagles' 2-1 doubles win, an often forgotten slot but one the Eagles rarely lose, secured the deciding point. Garg and Kulscar lost a close 8-6 decision, while AU's other two pairs won 8-5 and 8-1.
Even those Eagles who finished with losing records, like senior Guillaume Tarralle, who finished 1-2 playing in the first seed in all three matches, had what Blackman considered a good weekend. Tarralle lost against Boston College's Justin Slattery, 11-9, in a super-breaker - played instead of a third set as dusk approached and the team victory was already secure.
The most important thing for AU now is to take the exhausting weekend and carry it over into the rest of the season - and more importantly, the postseason.
"It's good for them," Blackman said. "The stress of the weekend, and the strain, is a lot like the stress and the strain of the conference tournament and the first and second round of the NCAAs[tournament]."
If Garg's attitude is any indication, Blackman has his team focused exactly toward those larger goals.
"On the one hand, we're happy to beat Army and Boston College," Garg said. "On the other hand, we don't want to be too happy. We'll cherish it, but then it's time to take this momentum into practice"
