September 30, 2008

Mixed Results, Rain Define Red Invites

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The men’s tennis team received a strong dose of Ivy exposure this weekend at Princeton’s Farnsworth Invitational — perhaps too much at times, though the Red was able to find some success against tough opponents at the Princeton Invitational. On the women’s side, freshman Stephanie Kent won her singles finals match, and then teamed up with junior Natalia Sanchez to take home the doubles title in the Red bracket of the Cissie Leary Invitational.
In Flight A Singles, junior Jonathan Fife advanced to the semifinals before falling to Columbia’s Jonathan Wong. Wong also defeated sophomore Jeremy Feldman in the third round. In B Singles play, sophomore Andy Gauthier lost to Matt Schimmel of Yale in the first round, and freshman Connor Sherwood lost to Penn’s Phil Law in the second round. [img_assist|nid=32203|title=Killer Miller|desc=Senior Shayna Miller swings during a 4-3 home win last spring against Brown.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
Proving Cornell had the ability to win against Ivy rivals, Sherwood defeated a Columbia player in the first round and a Yale player in his consolation match, Feldman beat Yale and Princeton players in his first two matches, and Fife beat Penn and Princeton players in his first two matches. Senior Kyle Doppelt also beat a Penn player in his Flight A consolation match.
The results of doubles play was as mixed as in singles, with the duo of Gauthier and Feldman making it to the finals of the B draw before losing to a strong Yale team 8-5. In what was something of a surprise, the two teams of Fife/Jaklitsch and Doppelt/Goldstein failed to advance beyond the first round of the A bracket.
“It was a pretty good accomplishment,” Gauthier said, about advancing to the finals. “The team from Yale was the best we played so far. They were both around 6-7. I’m 6-4, and they made me feel small.”
After playing for three straight weekends — the two most recent being on the road — the Red will have a week off before traveling to Yale on Oct. 16 for the ITA Northeast Regionals. Typically, only a handful of Cornell players qualify for the regionals.
Storms in the forecast for the Hudson River valley meant that some members of the women’s team could not compete in the Army Invitational at West Point. Scheduled play was still continued at the Cissie Leary Invitational in Philadelphia, however, where two of the team’s members had very successful weekends.
Kent and junior Sanchez were impressive overall — they beat teams from Yale, Penn, and Columbia (including one shutout match) to win the doubles bracket. In singles Kent also won her bracket, defeating Vicky Brook of Yale in the finals.