Tennis begins on road

The men’s tennis team returns from spring break with losses in California to Pomona Pitzer College, the University of California at Santa Cruz and Division II California State University at Sonoma, bringing their overall record to 0-4. “We went out to play some tough competition and the men came back with three tough losses to strong teams,” Head Coach Anna Khvalina said.On March 7, the UR men’s tennis team lost to Pomona Pitzer, 4-3. At No. 3 singles, senior Colin Ryan defeated Jeff Jablonski in three sets, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3. At No. 4 singles, 40th-ranked junior Partha Bhattacharya defeated J.B. Wogan in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3. At No. 5 singles, sophomore Eric Prince defeated Nathan Pealer in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3.At No. 1 singles, junior Avinash Reddy lost in three sets to 12th-ranked David Frankel. Senior Dan Williford lost at No. 2 singles in two sets to 34th-ranked J.R. Hall. At No. 6 singles, freshman Michael Lee’s winning streak ended with a loss to Erin Noble in two sets. In the next match against Sonoma State, he came back strong and won his match in straight sets. At No. 3 doubles, junior Brian Shenker and Prince defeated Neil Patel and Eric Noble, 8-3. Williford and Ryan lost 8-6 at No. 1 doubles to the 7th-ranked duo of J.R. Hall and David Frankel. Reddy and Bhattacharya lost at 8-6 at No. 2 doubles to Nathan Pealer and Jeff Jablonski.On March 7, the UR men’s team lost to UC Santa Cruz 6-0. Then on March 9, the team lost to Sonoma State, 4-3.In the three-game California trip, Bhattacharya went 2-1 in the singles matches. Bhattacharya and Reddy paired up to win in the No. 2 doubles match against Sonoma State, in what Khvalina described as “their best doubles showing since starting to play together this spring.” Shenker and Prince won both of their No. 3 doubles matches against Pomona and Sonoma.Reddy came close to victory in two very tough deciding matches, losing in three sets. “He played great at times and hopefully he will build on that for the remainder of the season and make the improvements to put himself in position to win the hard fought battles,” Khvalina said.The team plays on March 26 at Hobart College. The next home game is March 27 at 2 p.m. against Niagara University at the Goergen Athletic Center.Mclean can be reached at amclean@camputimes.org.