Hobart College, Ithaca College and Mercyhurst College traveled to UR this past weekend to participate in a four team, four flight tournament. The Yellowjackets came away from the event with valuable match play experience before this weekends ITA Championship at Vassar College.
UR divided eight singles players and four doubles teams into six different draws at last weekend’s matches. The Yellowjacket’s top ranked doubles team, junior Dan Williford and sophomore Avinash Reddy were victorious in the Flight A doubles, handily defeating the top Mercyhurst team 8-1 in the finals. UR’s second doubles team won the consolation of the doubles flight, defeating Mercyhurst’s second team 8-5, to finish fifth flight A.
UR also fared well in the B Flight of the doubles, finishing first and third in the bracket. The Yellowjackets’ fourth rated team of junior Nithin Raikar and freshman Josh Bruce-Black defeated Mercyhurst’s third team to win the flight, while UR’s third rated team of junior Jon Lee and freshman Ariel Almog finished third, beating Ithaca’s third team 8-4.
In singles, Rochester won both the B and D flights. In the finals of the B Flight, number four singles player, Shenker defeated fellow teammate, number three, senior captain Dan Schoenerr 3-6, 6-3, (10-4) to take home the title. It was UR facing off again, as the number seven and eight players went at it in the D flight final, with number seven Bruce-Black defeating number eight Almog 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.
In the A flight, number one singles player, Wiliford suffered a tough first round lost, but rebounded to win his next two matches, defeating Ithaca’s number one player 7-6, 6-2 to win the Flight A consolation draw. Reddy, the number two singles player also rebounded after a tough three set loss to come back and claim third place in the flight, after beating Mercyhurst’s number two 7-6, 6-2.
Finally, in the singles C Flight, UR took home second and third. Number five, Prince, lost a tough match in the finals 1-6, 6-3, 3-6 to Ithaca’s number five, and had to settle for second in the flight. Number six player, Raikar, defeated Hobart’s number six player 7-5, 7-5, to grab third.
The weekend showed that the Yellowjackets have superior depth over their competitors. UR used their depth to produce results which validated their dominance.
“We dominated most of the draws which we expected because we play a lot deeper than most of the schools which were here,” Reddy said.
The results from last weekend were secondary to the preparation for the ITA tournament this weekend, which is their biggest competition for the fall. “It was a confidence builder for the team as we head into our most important tournament of the fall season,” Shenker said.
UR’s toughest opponents at the ITA’s will include players from New York University, Skidmore College and The College of New Jersey.
Rybaltowski can be reached at mrybaltowski@campustimes.org.
