Welcome to the Greg Artzt Show.
This weekend, the men’s netters hosted an eight-team field at Reis Tennis Center from the annual Cornell Fall Indoor Invitational. When the tourney ended on Sunday afternoon, the eight other teams went home empty-handed.
Led by senior co-captain Greg Artzt, who went undefeated as he won both the A Flight singles and doubles crowns, the Red swept all singles and doubles titles.
The A Flight singles saw three Cornellians in the final four. Artzt ground out a win against Johannes Weingarter of Kutztown, Penn., winning in two tiebreak sets. Senior co-captain Mike Halperin downed Rutgers’ number-one player, Greg Schweitzer, to make the semi-finals.
Halperin narrowly defeated his teammate, junior Stefan Paulovic, in the semis to meet Artzt in the A Flight finals.
“To tell the truth, I wasn’t really watching Greg and Mike play,” head coach Barry Schoonmaker commented, “some of our other guys were playing people from other schools, and I needed to see those other teams.”
Schoonmaker missed out on an excellent match; the senior team leaders had two tiebreak sets, before Artzt closed out Halperin 6-2 in the third set.
Then in A Flight doubles, Artzt and junior Pat Hagan met Halperin and Paulovic in the finals. Once more, the finals were a hard-fought affair; Artzt and Hagan won, 8-7 (5), as Paulovic and Halperin served for the match.
“It was good for Greg and Pat to gain confidence [going against the #1 doubles team from last year], and Stefan and Mike got a good match in,” Schoonmaker said.
Freshman Zach Gallin ran away with the B Flight singles. He faced a grueling opening match against Nandor Veres of Saint Bonaventure, whom he downed 5-6 (4), 6-5 (4), 6-2. Gallin, who was ranked second in New York State as a high school senior, cruised all the way through the finals, ultimately gaining the crown by beating Kevin Blelen of Rutgers, 6-2, 6-2.
Senior Joe Chrisman teamed up with freshman Julian Chang to win the B Flight doubles. Later on, Chang bested fellow freshman Scott Paltrowitz for the C Flight singles title, 6-3, 4-6, 6-5 (7).
Schoonmaker was enthusiastic on his freshman players.
“This has been one of our most successful recruiting years in a long time. Now we have a lot of depth on the team.”
Junior Carl Thorsen completed the sweep, beating Takoshi Zetsu of Rutgers in two sets for the D Flight singles.
“[This Fall Invitational] was the first event where we took every flight,” Schoonmaker said, “these teams might not have been the strongest, but we still had pressure. A win against Cornell can make their season, so they made us play.”
Archived article by Tom McNulty