The Cornell men’s tennis team is off to a fast start this year after an action-packed weekend that saw a great deal of success for the Red.
Four of Cornell’s top players, juniors Dan Brous, Nick Brunner and Josh Raff and senior Brett McKeon, were in New Jersey this past weekend for the Farnsworth/Princeton Invitational.
The Red’s biggest success at Princeton came when Brunner and Raff won the doubles bracket yesterday. Brunner and Raff defeated two teams from Princeton and a team from Virginia Tech en route to the final match, in which they beat Marty and Jimmy Moore of Colgate, 8-4. Brous and McKeon had lost to the Moores earlier in the weekend, dropping a 8-4 decision during the first round of the doubles tournament on Friday.
Men’s head coach Barry Schoonmaker lauded Brunner and Raff’s victory, saying, “[it] sets them up as one of the top doubles teams in the northeast.”
McKeon was the only member of the Red to survive the first day of singles action. McKeon defeated Brent Williams of Virginia Tech 6-1, 6-2, and Penn’s Tas Tobias 7-5, 6-0 on Friday before losing to Virginia Tech’s Corace Brandon on Saturday.
For the rest of the squad back here in Ithaca who played in the Cornell Men’s Fall Invitational, the Red dominated Friday’s matches, compiling an 18-1 record.
Cornell’s two singles players in Flight A, junior Charn Bak and sophomore Tongle Yu, handily won their matches to advance to the second round of play on Saturday. Both Bak and Yu were eliminated after each lost their second match of the singles tournament.
However, the weekend’s victories were not limited to singles action, as all five doubles teams won and advanced to the second round of play. Flight B of the doubles tournament was won by Cornell freshmen Peter Kung and Bryant Yung after they defeated teammates Kevin Jay and Yu, 8-2. Kung also won the Flight C Singles bracket, defeating freshman teammate Kyle Doppelt.
The Cornell women’s tennis team didn’t fair quite as well this past weekend, struggling on the road at the annual Cissie Leary Invitational in Philadelphia, hosted by Penn.
Junior Nisha Suda recorded the Red’s only victory of the weekend on Friday, defeating Nicole Beck of Wisconsin in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1, after losing to Penn’s Julia Koulbitskaya earlier in the day, 6-3, 6-4.
In other singles action, junior Kasia Preneta lost twice on Friday, first to Allison Hashmall of Princeton, 6-7 (1), 6-3, 1-0 (7), and then later to Penn’s Lauren Sadaka, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (6). The third member of the women’s tennis team to travel to Philadelphia was senior Mollie Edinson, who also lost twice in singles on Friday.
Friday’s doubles action saw Suda and Preneta lose to Megan Muth and Barbara Zidek of William & Mary, 8-3. For her doubles match, Edinson was paired up with Catriona Stewart of Harvard. They were beaten by Leyla Morzan and Lauren Holtzberg of Penn State, 8-4.
Suda was the Red’s sole Saturday participant in singles action, losing 7-5, 6-1, to Jenny Shular of Penn State.
Despite the team’s difficulties so far this season, Suda remains optimistic. Second year women’s head coach Laura Glitz has been training the team rigorously, and Suda is confident, saying that, “all this match experience will pay off later on this season, especially against the other Ivies.”
Archived article by Greg Slovick
Sun Contributor