February 27, 2006

Tennis Teams Post 3-2 Record

Print More

The Cornell tennis teams had a successful weekend, posting a combined record of 3-2 against non-league foes. The men’s squad won two and lost one, earning victories against Buffalo and Army while falling to Western Michigan on its weekend road trip. The women’s team won its home match against Army on Saturday, before dropping a contest on the road at Syracuse yesterday.

In the men’s 5-2 loss to Western Michigan on Friday, the Red won two of its singles matches and one of its doubles matches. Junior Nick Brunner appeared to put forth the best effort of the day for Cornell, as he defeated Jose Orozco of Western Michigan in two sets and was able to capture a doubles victory alongside his partner, junior Josh Raff. According to freshmen Peter Kung and Josh Goldstein, the final score didn’t indicate how close the match was on the court against Western Michigan.

“We were really close [against Western Michigan] … but we lost a couple of crucial tiebreakers, which cost us some momentum,” Kung said.

“[Senior] Brett McKeon and [sophomore] Rory Heggie lost a couple of very close matches which could have easily gone either way,” Goldstein said. “The doubles point was also very close, and if we had won two of those three, we would have won the match.”

Cornell responded to the loss in a big way on Saturday, capturing five out of six singles matches in a 5-1 win against Buffalo. Freshman Kyle Doppelt, Heggie, sophomore Tongle Yu, junior Charn Bak and Kung were all victorious.

“[Against] Buffalo, we basically dominated,” Kung said.

The Red’s winning ways continued as the team traveled to West Point yesterday to take on Army, winning five-of-six singles matches and all three doubles matches in its 6-1 win. McKeon, Brunner, junior Dan Brous, Heggie and Doppelt won their singles matches.

Raff suffered the lone singles loss of the day. However, Raff teamed up with Brunner in the primary doubles match to defeat the Army team of Carl Fisher and Phil Muhawi.

“We’re just a better team than [Army], and we played like it. By the time Ivy play starts, we’re going to be playing even better,” Goldstein said.

The Cornell men weren’t the only ones who appeared to have their way with Army this weekend. On Saturday, the women’s team remained undefeated in February by defeating Army, 6-1. Like the men, the women took five-of-six singles matches and all three of the doubles matches. Senior Mollie Edinson, junior Kasia Preneta, freshman Tamara John, junior Nisha Suda and freshman Elizabeth Googe all emerged with singles victories. Freshman Catherine Duboc lost her singles match in an extremely close tiebreaker, 10-8.

Unfortunately, the women’s team was unable to achieve victory in its match Sunday against Syracuse, falling 5-2. However, Googe felt that the road experience would help the Red in thelong run when it faces league opponents.

“We came out strong [Saturday], but [yesterday] we might have been a little flat,” she said, “Syracuse was our first away head-to-head match, and we don’t start Ivy play until April, so we have plenty of time to get where we want to be by then.”

Archived article by David Sims
Sun Contributor