Despite the absence of a few players, the men’s tennis team succeeded in a clean sweep over the Rochester Institute of Technology and Hobart College last weekend.
Saturday was a long day for the Yellowjackets. They started early against RIT, whom they beat 7-0. The Yellowjackets finally finished nearly nine hours later, wrapping up another 7-0 victory against Hobart.
RIT was some of the weakest competition the Yellow-jackets will face all year. By winning all the singles matches with relative ease, UR proved that it wont take any team lightly.
The only slight burp was second-seeded freshman Dan Willifords win in three sets 7-5, 4-6, 6-2-proving there was talent on the RIT squad.
Despite having expectations to pull off solid wins, UR was not surprised by the slight struggle.
“Even though we expected to win, it is hard to dominate and pull off clean-sweep wins,” junior Brad Kraus said. “The other team has nothing to lose.”
“But Dan played hard just like everyone else on the squad, and it showed in the score,” Kraus said.
Top seeded and freshman Colin Ryan led the team with his convincing victory over RIT’s Gus Epelbaum 6-1, 6-3.
The winning rhythm carried over and set the tone for the rest of the RIT matches. Third-seeded freshman Dan Schoenherr only lost two games in his two-set victory over Luke St. George- 6-1, 6-1.
Schoenherr completed the talented freshman trio, along with Ryan and Williford, that led the mens singles matches.
Ryan and Schoenherr were paired up to play against RITs first-seeded duo formed by Epelbaum and Chris Corso. The pair won 8-4 with relative ease.
Other victorious contributions included the second and third-seeded doubles. Williford paired up with junior Koh Kiuchi while freshman Nithin Raikar and senior Josh White picked up the wins.
UR’s bid against Hobart later that Saturday afternoon was almost a mirror image of the RIT match.
However, UR showed signs of decreased intensity.
The day proved to be long for the Yellowjackets despite the dominating victory.
Ryan started off the match by playing first-seeded singles against Hobart’s Andrew Hunt. Ryan won easily, dropping only three games- 6-2, 6-1.
Coach Chris O’Brien switched around the lineup and paired Schoenherr with second-seeded Ryan Gilmore.
Schoenherr showed signs of fatigue in his first set, winning 6-4 but came back to pull off a convincing 6-0 victory in the second set.
Other victors in singles play were juniors Aaron Arfman, Anton Orlin and Brad Kraus.
Despite success in their singles matches, Ryan and Schoenherr came up short in their first-seeded doubles match against Hobart’s Andrew Hunt and Gilmore.
The tandom lost by a close score of 8-6.
However, the spirit of the team was upbeat and Williford highlighted the overall effort and success of the day despite the fatigue from back-to-back games.
“It was a long day,” Williford said. “But we are all happy that we came away with such convincing victories at home.”
The Yellowjackets will face the College of New Jersey Friday, March 30 at UR’s outdoor courts unless it snows. The men will then play in the Goergen Athletic Center.
