The Cornell men’s tennis team finished fourth in the Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic. The team won it’s first match, 4-0, against William & Mary to proceed to the semifinals losing, 4-1, to No. 47 Texas Tech. The team finally finished fourth at the Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic after failing to defeat No. 22 Notre Dame at 4-1 in Montgomery, Ala. on March 17.
“There were a lot of strong teams and this was our first time playing outside so it was tough to adjust,” sophomore Sam Fleck said.
But with its recent win against Florida Central last Wednesday, the team is now 11-4. The Red, ranked 33rd in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, won all of its doubles matches: sophomores Jason Luu and Quoc – Daniel Nguyen won the No. 1 doubles match, 8-3, sophomores Fleck and Kyle Berman won No. 2 at 8-6 and a 7-6 win at. No. 3 by sophomore Alex Sidney and Junior Alex Wilton. The singles matches were not such a clean sweep with the Red retiring the No. 1 match due to an injury, a loss, 6-1, 6-1 loss at No. 4 and a 6-3, 6-4 loss at No. 6. But, the Big Red pulled through the losses and Fleck won 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2, at No. 3 Sidney won 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 and Luu at No. 5 won 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 leading to a final 4-3 victory against Florida Central.
“The match against Central Florida really showed us how strong we are as a team. It was really hot and humid which we were not used to at all, but the team managed to pull through,” Fleck said.
The team was originally supposed to play the University of South Florida, but due to adverse weather conditions the teams were unable to finish their match.
The team is now going to head into Ivy Season with its first match in an away game against Columbia University this Saturday.
“Columbia is a good team for us to start the Ivy season with. They are one of our toughest opponents; we played against them in the ECAC tournament and won pretty solidly, so we are feeling really confident about the playing them, but we will still need to play well,” Sidney said. “I think we have a good shot at winning the Ivy League tournament as a whole [and] winning the ECAC tournament has given us an edge over the other teams. They all want to have a shot at us, which is a good position to be in. As a whole, the team is really excited about the upcoming matches.”
Original Author: Deeya Bajaj