The UR tennis teams faced several opponents last weekend, coming up short in both the men’s and women’s matches at the Zornow indoor courts. The men’s and women’s teams went up against Kenyon College and Bowdoin College and were unable to come out with a win. The men suffered an additional loss at the hands of Bates College.
Men’s resultsIn previous weeks, the men had been rolling over their competition, easily winning against Rochester Institute of Technology and Hobart College Nazareth College.
This past weekend’s losses came at the hands of previous Nationals’ qualifiers and bring their spring season record to 3-3 against Division III opponents. The losses have significantly reduced the mens chances for making Nationals. The losses against Kenyon, Bates and Bowdoin came by a score of 6-1, 6-0 and 5-2 respectively.
Against Kenyon freshman Josh Bruce-Black – playing at the number four singles position – was the only Yellowjacket to come up with a win. In the Bowdoin match, UR found wins from junior Dan Williford and senior Dan Schoenherr at the three and six singles positions, respectively.
Next up for the men are matches against Salisbury State and Swarthmore College April 12 and 13 respectively. The men are much stronger than these teams on paper, but Swarthmore always comes out ready to play against UR.
If the men are to make Nationals they will most likely have to win the rest of there regular season matches.
Women’s results
The women faced tough competition in the same weekend, being overpowered by the women visitors from Kenyon and Bowdoin.
Even with the home court advantage and a strong effort, the young women’s team was not able to gain wins against the two colleges, losing to Kenyon 9-0 and Bowdoin 8-1.
Previously the women faced two schools over spring break – Fairfield University and Prebyterian College – and could not bring wins out of either match, losing to Fairfield 4-3 in a close contest and Presbyterian 9-0.
Returning to UR, they faced the Div. I squad from Niagara University and still were not able to pull out of their slump, falling 7-0.
In what is primarily a re-building year, the women’s team will travel to William Smith College on Wednesday and bring a renewed effort to the game as they attempt to pull out a win. William Smith is a UCAA opponent that the women can definitely compete with. A win would give the team confidence heading into the last month of their spring season.
Linden can be reached at klinden@campustimes.org.
