Winter 2013-14
Roar, Lion, Roar
Narayana, Schnur Win National Indoor Doubles Title
Columbia’s duo of Ashok Narayana ’15 and Max Schnur ’15 stunned the top-seeded and No. 1 nationally ranked pair of Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese from Tennessee 6–3, 6–2 to win the doubles draw of the ITA/USTA National Indoor Intercollegiate Tennis Championships on November 10.
“The guys they played have been No. 1 in the country since February, and they hardly lose,” Lions coach Bid Goswami said. “It makes it that much better beating the No. 1 team in the championship. Now everyone will be gunning for us, but it’s great to win this and have a national championship under our belt.”
Columbia, which hosted the tournament at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, entered the doubles draw as a wild card and earned the program’s first collegiate Grand Slam and national tournament crown. It was also the first national title earned by an Ivy League team since 1999, when James Blake of Harvard won the singles championship.
“Once we won the first set, the chants started coming, ‘Let’s go Lions!’ and I think we fed off that really well,” Schnur said. “It was a great atmosphere for us. We knew we could beat any team, but now we actually won a championship.”
“We had good game planning and strategy,” Narayana said. “We’ve been in these situations, so we knew if we played well we would have a shot.”
Narayana and Schnur won their opening match of the four-day tournament over the No. 3 doubles team in the nation, Jackson Withrow and Junior Ore from Texas A&M, by an 8–4 score. The Columbia partnership continued their success with an 8–2 victory over Rafael Aita and Sam Williams of North Carolina-Wilmington, then advanced to the semifinals by beating Simon Felix and Deni Zmak of Embry-Riddle 8–3. Narayana and Schnur earned a shot at the national crown by beating Florida State’s Benjamin Lock and Marco Nunez 6–4, 6–4 in the semifinals.