On Friday, Michigan State men’s tennis earned its first-ever win in the NCAA Tournament and did so in impressive fashion, sweeping the last undefeated team remaining in the country, 4-0 en route to the Boston Regional final.
The Spartans are a No. 2 seed in the tournament and ranked 22nd nationally. Next, they will compete against Harvard to advance to the Sweet 16. Harvard also swept its opponent, Boston University, 4-0.
Multiple 2023 graduate transfers played a significant part in the Spartans' win on Friday. Ronald Hohmann III and Sebastien Collard contributed significantly to the Spartans’ victory.
Spartans coach Harry Jadun, who in 2013 was a sophomore on the only other MSU Men’s Tennis team to make it to the NCAA tournament, understands the history the Spartans made. Now that he’s the leader of the team and not a player on it, he’s shown the ability to keep it all in perspective.
"It's pretty remarkable," Jadun said. "You talk about 110 years of history, and you just did something for the first time- maybe a week from now, I'll understand the gravity of it. But we're working on our craft here, looking to compete and hopefully make a run."
The 2013 team Jadun was a part of finished their season 14-14 after losing in the tournament's first round. Jadun has led the Spartans to the NCAA tournament after they failed to win more than 15 games once in the last decade. Jadun went 11-14 in his first season at the helm. The Spartans’ 22 wins are the most in program history and combined their most wins with the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory.
The Spartans face a difficult battle in the next round. According to Michigan State Athletics, “Following Friday's first-round win, the Crimson are 23-6, having won a share of the competitive Ivy League regular season title at 6-1.
“The Crimson played seven common opponents as the Spartans during the regular season: Northwestern (Harvard: 4-0, 4-0, MSU: 5-2), Michigan (Harvard: 6-1, MSU: 2-5, 3-4), Ohio State (Harvard: 1-4, MSU: 1-6), UC Santa Barbara (Harvard: 4-3, MSU: 5-2), Pepperdine (Harvard: 4-1, MSU: 5-2), Brown (Harvard: 7-0, MSU: 7-0) and Princeton (Harvard: 4-3, MSU: 0-4).”
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