Tennis takes on RIT, improves to 14-1

By beating the Rochester Institute of Technology 6-1 on March 29, the men’s tennis team improved their record to an impressive 14-1 for the season.”We took care of business,” senior Avinash Reddy said. “It was a good, solid team effort and everyone contributed towards the win in their own way.”Reddy and doubles partner and junior Eric Prince defeated RIT’s No. 2 doubles team 8-4. At No. 3 doubles, UR’s team of senior Brian Shenker and sophomore Mike Lee beat their opponents 9-7. At first doubles, UR’s team of freshmen Eric Hansen and Thanos Kantarelis lost 8-4 to RIT’s David Chachu and Rod Razavi in a rematch of the fall regional finals.”The freshmen bounced back strong in singles,” Head Coach Anna Khvalina said.Both Hansen and Kantarelis won their matches in straight sets. Hansen won 6-2, 6-0 at No. 2 and Kantarelis won 6-1, 6-3 at No. 4 singles.Junior Josh Bruce-Black also won in straight sets 6-2, 6-0, playing third singles.Prince and Lee not only won their singles matches at the No. 5 and No. 6 spots 6-1, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-0, respectively, but they also won their doubles matches. They beat RIT’s Darren Stanley and Jason Swails 8-4.Only Reddy was defeated in singles, falling to RIT’s David Chachu 6-4, 6-3. “The win against RIT gives us momentum heading into this weekend,” Hansen said. “We have a couple of big matches coming up against Brandeis University and Bates College that have implications for the national tournament.”The team looks forward to traveling to Boston this upcoming weekend. The Yellowjackets look to continue their six-game winning streak and will compete to improve their ranking. “This weekend at Brandeis and Bates and the weekend of April 16 at [the University Athletic Association tournament] are the biggest matches remaining,” said Reddy. “They will definitely be competitive, and we just need to take care of all the things in our control and try and play positive tennis and look to get some wins.”The Yellowjackets play at Brandeis against Bates on April 2 and against Brandeis on April 3. They return to Brandeis for the UAA tournament from April 15 to 17.The Yellowjackets are currently undefeated in all home matches, with a 7-0 record. Their next home match is against The College of New Jersey on April 23. Ogorek can be reached at aogorek@campustimes.org.