The men’s tennis team continued its dominance during the Spring season, as it ran its record to 9-1 after a pair of convincing 7-0 wins over Colgate and Binghamton this past weekend at Reis Tennis Center.
“We did what we were supposed to do,” Cornell head coach Barry Schoonmaker said. “You can’t complain about two 7-0 wins.”
The Red started the weekend on the right foot by sweeping Colgate on Friday. Cornell did not drop a single set in the nine matches. After winning all three doubles matches to claim the doubles point, the Red proceeded to win all the singles matches.
Junior Julian Cheng faced the sternest test at the No. 1 singles spot but came away with a 6-4, 7-6 (9) victory. Juniors Scott Paltrowitz, Aravinda Neuman, Mike Schlappig, and Scott Spencer, along with freshman Brett McKeon, followed suit with wins over their Colgate counterparts.
On Saturday, Cornell had an easy time with Binghamton, dropping just one set during its 7-0 win. The only loss came in the No. 1 doubles matchup, with the Bears’ team of Akshay Rao and Brad Sherwood defeating Cornell’s duo of Cheng and sophomore Matt Cherner-Ranft. The Red claimed the doubles point, though, winning the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches.
After dropping the first set in the No. 1 singles match, Paltrowitz eked out the second set to take the match 4-6, 7-5 (10-5).
Schoonmaker pointed out Paltrowitz’s fine weekend.
“Scott Paltrowitz beat a very tough player from Colgate then he beat Binghamton’s No. 1,” he said.
Neuman and Spencer won their matches handily in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, while senior Mike Laycob won his match 6-0, 6-2 in the No. 4 slot. Freshman Ray Wu defeated Brian O’Connor 3-6, 7-5 (10-1) at No. 5 and Cherner-Ranft closed out Stee Spencer in three sets.
Despite this weekend’s victories, however, the Red realizes that wins will be harder to come by over the rest of the season.
“From here on out, nothing is easy. The last bunch [of matches] we were kind of the favorites. Now we’ll be going into a bunch where we’re not the favorites. We’ll find out how tough we really are,” Schoonmaker said.
The Red will next play when it travels to Blacksburg, Va. to take on Memphis on March 14.
Archived article by Alex Ip