CJS Press Box

The No. 12 Columbia men’s tennis team didn’t just walk into Sunday’s ECAC Indoor Championship hoping to compete; they walked in expecting to win. 

Instead, after over four hours of intense play, they left without the title. The Lions were undone by slim margins in doubles and a handful of three-set battles up and down the lineup that didn’t go their way in singles, falling to Princeton 4-3.

But even in defeat, one player stood out amongst the rest: Nicolas Kotzen.

Nationally ranked No.25 Kotzen defeated Fnu Nidunjianzan, a three-time First-Team All-Ivy League Singles honoree,  in a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 match. 

“He played terrific this weekend, he beat a player who’s historically given him a lot of trouble,” said Columbia head coach Howard Endelman. “He’s playing great defense and really making some strides.”  

The senior has been Columbia’s steadiest force all season, stepping up to take the place of senior No. 1-ranked Michael Zheng while he was away in January competing at the Australian Open. Zheng, a back-to-back NCAA singles champion in 2024/25, has cemented his legacy as one of the greatest collegiate tennis players of all time during his time at Columbia. 

Even now, back in Columbia’s No. 2 position, Kotzen has once again delivered under pressure. 

Kotzen first picked up a tennis racket at the age of four and has since built one of the most competitive resumes in the Ivy League. A First Team All-Ivy League selection in both singles and doubles in 2025 after earning Second Team honors in both categories a year prior, he has evolved from a promising underclassman to a lineup anchor. 

As a junior, he posted a 27-12 overall singles record and a 15-4 mark in dual matches, including a 5-0 run through Ivy League play. From mid-February through May last season, he didn’t lose a completed dual match. 

Seemingly, the big matches don’t rattle him either. 

“I like playing away, there’s a fun aspect to it,” Kotzen said. “Especially when you go and play a really big team, and you know there’s gonna be a lot of people there, those are the really fun matches to play in.” 

Kotzen went 2-2 in singles at the NCAA Championships last spring, knocking off his Wake Forest opponent in the quarterfinals. The year before, he clinched Columbia’s 4-2 win over No.26 Michigan to send the Lions to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019 – a breakthrough moment that signalled his arrival on the team. 

In fact, Kotzen is developing a habit of coming in clutch when the team need him most. Earlier this month, when the team played Michigan in Ann Arbor, he clinched the win for the Lions with a 6-4, 7-5 win over No.71 Bjorn Swenson. 

But Kotzen’s success was not enough to salvage a win for the Lions on Sunday. 

“We’ve beaten Princeton relatively easily in the past,” Kotzen said. “This year we knew they had a really good team, and we had a younger team, so we knew it was going to be tougher.”

Columbia fell behind early after Princeton secured the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1 and 3. Sachin Palta and Zheng claimed a 6-4 victory, but it wasn’t enough to swing the opening tally in their direction. 

The Lions would need four singles courts. And they so nearly found them. 

Thanaphat Boosarawongse, No. 96 nationally, was sharp at No. 4 singles and defeated Sebastian Sec 6-4, 6-4 to pull Columbia level. Abishek Thorat followed suit with a huge 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 comeback at No.5, flipping his luck with a tight second-set tiebreak before pulling away in the third. 

When Kotzen closed out his match moments later, Columbia led 3-2. The Championship sat one point away. 

Princeton answered at the top and middle of the lineup. Princeton’s No.7 Paul Inchauspe edged Zheng in three sets at No.1, as the pressure proved too much for Zheng. His loss was followed by Princeton’s Lanson Ardila rallying past No. 37 Sachin Palta at No.3 to claim the team victory for the Tigers.

“It’s never easy to lose to another Ivy League school, especially with the success we’ve had in the last two years,” Kotzen said. 

Although they lost the trophy this time around, Columbia proved it can still trade blows with the best in the conference. The Lions will have one more chance to beat Princeton at the Ivy League tournament in May, a rematch that now carries a little extra weight, but until then, their focus shifts to tightening up the margins that made the difference on Sunday.