Alabama men’s tennis fought off a tough Harvard team by a score of 4-2 and continued their undefeated season.

The Crimson Tide’s players knew they were going to be challenged today after Harvard defeated Auburn 6-1 on Friday. During the doubles matches, Alabama took advantage by breaking serve late on court No. 2 and court No. 3, which allowed it to win the doubles point for the sixth straight time this season.

“We came out firing, not only in doubles, but also in singles,” coach George Husack said. “But not for a moment did I take it for granted because Harvard was going to put up a great fight.”

Harvard started singles play strong by winning its first two matches in straight sets, which put Alabama down 2-1. Junior Thibault Cancel was one point away from defeating his opponent and tying the score, but a close ball on the baseline was ruled out and he ended up losing the set.

The Crimson Tide began to shift the momentum after junior Edson Ortiz won his match and tied the Crimson at 2-2. Almost simultaneously, fellow junior Zhe Zhou won on court No. 6 to put Alabama up by one. With two matches remaining, it seemed that Cancel’s match and senior Mazen Osama’s match was going to go down to the wire. But, Osama broke Harvard’s number one player’s serve to go up 4-3 in the second set with the first set already in favor of Osama.

“You could see that he wanted [the match],” Husack said. “Once he got the break in the second set, he felt a lot looser.”

Osama then went on to win the next two games including breaking serve to win the match, which brought the fans at the Roberta Alison Baumgardner fans to their feet.

“It’s great [to have the fans’ support],” Osama said. “You can feel that the atmosphere in the whole facility is great. It’s always good to know that you have them.”

Alabama will be back in action Friday at home against Minnesota who, like Alabama, made the Sweet 16 last year in the NCAA Championships.

“We grew a bit today and this weekend,” Husack said. “Coming into these matches, everyone says ‘oh, you’re winning,’ but I’m really impressed by the level maturity of this team has taken on.”