This weekend, the men’s tennis team is headed to the Army Invitational. Led by seniors Greg Artzt and Mike Halperin, the Red hopes to use the momentum coming off of its sweep of the Cornell Fall Invitational last weekend to propel it to victory again. Artzt went undefeated last week, sweeping the A flight singles and the doubles. The team also had A Flight wins by freshman Zach Gallin, B Flight Doubles by freshman Julian Chang and senior Joe Chrisman, and C Flight singles by junior Carl Thorsen.
This weekend’s matchup at Army may prove to be a difficult challenge — Cornell placed sixth in the ECAC men’s invitational while Army placed eighth in the event three weeks ago. During this invitational, the Black Knights won two doubles sets and one singles after upsetting seventh-seed Penn (4-3) and finally being eliminated by second-seed Yale (5-2). Last weekend, Army faired even better during the Patriot League Individual Championships, winning eight of nine possible titles.
However, despite the close ranking of the teams in the ECAC Championships, the Red should be the favored squad. Not only did the team finish with the higher ranking, its head coach, Barry Schoonmaker, was not excited at his team’s performance in that event. Part of this displeasure stems from the fact that Cornell boasts the returning Ivy Player of the Year in Halperin, as well as a very talented supporting cast.
Archived article by Tamara Webster