The men’s tennis team had a strong showing this weekend at Cornell’s annual Fall Indoor Invitational held Friday, Saturday and yesterday at the Reis Tennis Center against a solid field including teams from Army, Colgate, Temple and Buffalo.
The seniors watched this tournament from the sidelines, allowing the team’s younger players to gain valuable experience and a shot at the spotlight.
On Friday they did just that. The tournament included three singles flights and two doubles flights. Of the 14 matches played, Cornell took every one, sweeping the day as both singles and doubles triumphed.
[img_assist|nid=19302|title=Eyes on the prize|desc=Junior Tongle Yu (pictured) won two titles at the Cornell Fall Indoor Invitational this weekend. (Trevor Vieweg / Sun Contributor)|link=popup|align=left|width=79|height=100]
Sophomore Bryant Yung won both his singles matches in C Flight decisively, 6-3, 6-4 and 6-4, 6-4 respectively, as well as his A Flight doubles match.
Junior Tongle Yu won in a first set tie-breaker to take his B Flight singles match, as well as his B Flight doubles match
Saturday, the play became more competitive but Cornell rose to the challenge, winning 13 out of a total 19 matches on the day.
Sophomore Peter Kung played his way into the finals of the A Flight singles with a 7-5, 6-3 defeat over Chris Innes of Colgate, and a 6-3, 6-4 win over Peirre Clavel of Binghamton.
Junior Weston Nichols also made it to the semifinals of the A Flight, but lost there to Martin MacIntyre of Colgate, 6-4, 6-2.
Of the four doubles pairs, three won at least one match, placing them in the semifinals, with the team of Yu and freshman Jonathan Fife playing their way into the finals of the B Flight.
The day wrapped up with Cornell in contention for a title in every singles flight and for the B Flight doubles crown.
In the finals of the A Flight, Kung did indeed take the title, beating Colgate’s MacIntyre, 7-6, 7-5. Yung also was victorious, edging past Frank Algier of Marist, 7-5, 7-6 for the C Flight title.
The B Flight singles title match paired teammates Yu and junior Kevin Jay, with Yu coming away with the win, 7-6, 7-4, 6-2.
“It’s always tough playing a teammate,” Yu said. “Personally, there’s always a lot of conflicting emotions. But as soon as that first serve comes I just tell myself to focus.”
Both A Flight doubles pairs lost in the semifinals.
The pair of Yu and Fife defeated their Colgate opponents, however, 8-4, 8-0, and 8-4. Yu cautioned against reading too much into the numbers, however.
“I felt like the scores were not indicative of the close games we had. We’re going to use this as momentum,” Yu said.
This invitational marks the end of the fall season for tennis.
“It’s a nice way to end the semester,” Yu said. “I think that this was very indicative of what’s going to hopefully happen in the upcoming year. We’re looking for a lot of good things from a lot of players.”