Ithaca Blanks Utica; Elmira Takes Down Alfred; Stevens Beats Vassar
ITHACA v UTICA
The Ithaca College men's tennis team (3-11, 2-1 Empire 8) posted a 9-0 victory over Utica (3-3, 0-3 Empire 8) on Wednesday afternoon at the Wheeler Tennis Courts in Ithaca. The Bombers won all of their singles matches in straight sets and dropped just three games over three doubles victories. Ithaca hosts Nazareth on Saturday at noon.
Kyle VanDelden and Alex Krugman each picked up their first singles wins of the season. VanDelden also teamed with Derryk Williams to win 8-0 at third singles. Griffin Reid, Justin Levine and Chris Hayes were victorious in both singles and doubles action.
Utica vs Ithaca
04/17/13 at Ithaca, N.Y.
(Wheeler Tennis Courts)
Ithaca 9, Utica 0
Singles competition
1. Griffin REID (IC) def. Jon Gorman (UTICA) 6-0, 6-1
2. Justin LEVINE (IC) def. Raphael Warnon (UTICA) 6-0, 6-1
3. Chris HAYES (IC) def. Sam Cotrupe (UTICA) 6-2, 6-0
4. Joseph HANF (IC) def. Matt Rogers (UTICA) 6-0, 6-1
5. Alex KRUGMAN (IC) def. Ryan Valle (UTICA) 6-1, 6-1
6. Kyle VAN DELDEN (IC) def. Phil Pham (UTICA) 6-1, 6-0
Doubles competition
1. David ANDERSEN/Chris HAYES (IC) def. Jon Gorman/Raphael Warnon (UTICA) 8-2
2. Justin LEVINE/Griffin REID (IC) def. Sam Cotrupe/Matt Rogers (UTICA) 8-1
3. Kyle VAN DELDEN/Derryk WILLIAMS (IC) def. Phil Pham/Ryan Valle (UTICA) 8-0
Team Records:
Utica 3-3, 0-3 Empire 8
Ithaca 3-11, 2-1 Empire 8
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (5,6,2,1,4,3)
ELMIRA v ALFRED
The EC Men's Tennis team took down a tough Alfred University team, 6-3, Wednesday afternoon on the road. The Soaring Eagles improve to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in Empire 8 play, while the Saxons fall to 4-7 overall and 1-2 in conference action.
In doubles action the Soaring Eagles controlled most of the tempo earning early leads across all three courts.
Gorav Simlote '13 and
Steffan Waters '13 put pressure on the Saxon's second doubles team earning an 8-3 victory.
Satchal Waters '16 and
Austin Mansell '16 took it to the Saxon's at the third doubles spot earning a huge lead. The Saxons were able to battle back, but
Waters and
Mansell would close it out late 8-5. The Saxon's first point came at the first doubles spot beating out
Keith Bujak '15 and
Sam Pine '14 8-5.
In singles action the Saxons continued to battle well, but the Soaring Eagles were too tough as they took four out of the six matches.
Mansell and
Bujak made quick work of their opponents winning at the fifth and sixth singles spots by identical scores of 6-0, 6-0. Alfred controlled the tempo at the third spot taking it 6-2, 6-3, and put forth tremendous effort to take the fourth spot in a third set tiebreaker 6-7(3-7), 6-4, 10-7. Clinching the match for the Purple and Gold was veteran
Simlote who demolished his opponent in the first set, 6-1, and fought from behind to win late, 7-5. At the first singles spot was
Pavle Vashakidze '16 who played impressive. After falling in a quick first set, 6-2, he challenged back to take the second and third sets by identical scores 6-3.
The EC Men's Tennis team will have a busy weekend as they host Roberts Wesleyan College on Friday, Oswego State University on Saturday, and Nazareth College on Sunday at the Murray Athletic Center. Friday's game will start at 4:00 p.m., Saturday's and Sunday's games will start at 1:00 p.m.
STEVENS v VASSAR
The Stevens Institute of Technology men's tennis team defeated Vassar College, 5-4, on Wednesday evening. The Ducks, ranked No. 13 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III Men's Rankings for the Northeast region, clinched the match over the Northeast No.12-ranked Brewers at 5-2 after going up 2-1 in double play.
The victory marked the Ducks' seventh in their last eight matches, which includes a perfect 4-0 start to Empire 8 Conference play.
Senior
Chris Rosensteel (East Windsor, N.J.) and freshman
Matthew Heinrich (Hendersonville, Tenn.), the No. 3-ranked doubles team in the Northeast region, went up a break early on at first doubles, but the third doubles pairing of junior
Derek Smith (Boise, Idaho) and freshman
Tyler Tisdale (Grapevine, Texas) was broken quickly as well while second doubles stayed on serve. Third doubles ended quickly, with Vassar taking the point, 8-3. Rosensteel and Heinrich added another break to take a commanding lead and stretched it out to 7-2, but the Brewers fought back to get within two games before the Ducks could close out it out at 8-6 to even the match overall. Meanwhile, freshman
Ben Foran (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) and senior
Shota Tasaki (Greenwich, Conn.) were broken early but responded with a break of their own to get back on serve, then followed up with another break to take a 5-4 lead. They held serve for two more games before finally finishing things off, 8-6, giving Stevens the 2-1 lead heading into singles play.
Tasaki was broken immediately at third singles and Heinrich suffered an early break as well while Rosensteel and Foran each recorded early breaks to go up 3-0. Tasaki responded quickly with a break and Heinrich also recovered to get back on serve minutes later. Foran was broken in the interim, but all three would hold their leads from that point while Rosensteel, cruised to a 6-0 victory at second singles. Meanwhile, across campus, Smith took his first set at sixth singles while Tisdale dropped a tiebreaker at #5, giving the Ducks a one-set advantage on five of the six courts.
With the match already on the line, Vassar began to rally, breaking Tasaki again at third singles and forcing Smith into a third set at #6. Rosensteel, ranked the No. 8 singles player in the region, dominated the second set as well at second singles and handed the Ducks a 3-1 lead with his 6-1, 6-0 victory. Foran jumped out to another 3-0 lead at fourth singles and soon closed out his match, 6-2, 6-0, to put the Ducks within one of the overall victory.
At the same time, Tasaki had broken back-to-back serves and forced a tiebreaker at third singles. The senior took a quick 2-0 lead, extended it to 6-1 and finally clinched the match for Stevens with a 6-1, 7-6 (2) victory.
Tisdale and Smith fell at fifth (7-6 [5], 6-1) and sixth (4-6, 6-4, 6-2) singles before long, leaving only Heinrich, ranked No. 15 in the Northeast, and senior Andrew Guzick, ranked No. 5 in the region. Guzick had recovered from the first-set loss to edge Heinrich out in the second, forcing a third. Heinrich fell behind by two breaks as the rookie wore down against the veteran, but with some fight left he took one break back before falling, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Head Coach
Steve Gachko and the Ducks will head up to Vermont for a matchup at No. 9 Middlebury College (14-1) on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. before continuing Empire 8 play at Utica College (3-3, 0-3) at 4 p.m.