The No. 44 men’s tennis team hit the road this weekend for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Kick-Off to face national powerhouses No. 3 Ohio State and No. 28 Notre Dame. Despite strong performances from sophomore Venkat Iyer in singles and freshmen Sam Fleck and Jason Luu in doubles, the Red came away with two losses, 5-1, 4-2.Against Ohio State, the Red (2-2) was unable to secure any wins in the doubles category. In singles, freshman Alex Sidney beat Ohio State sophomore Nelson Vick by default, for the Red’s only victory in the matchup.The Red fared better against the Irish the following day, starting off with a doubles win at the No. 2 spot, as Fleck and Luu defeated the Notre Dame combination of senior Casey Watt and sophomore Greg Andrews. Sidney and fellow freshman Quoc-Daniel Nguyen went on to win the No. 3 spot to secure the doubles advantage for the Red. In singles, No. 98 Iyer defeated Watt 7-6, 7-6 in the No. 1 spot, but none of the other Red singles players were able to come away with victories.The women’s team, however, with the help of its rookie class, fared better as hosts of the Cornell Winter Invitational at the Reis Tennis Center this weekend. The Red, which has yet to begin the team portion of its schedule this season, took three of five titles at the event, including the B singles, the C singles and the B doubles crowns.Both singles titles were brought home by freshmen; the B by Lauren Frazier, and the C by Rosemary Li. Freshman Courtney Malinchak also chipped in with junior Christine Ordway to defeat Columbia’s Katarina Kovacevic and Crystal Leung in the finals of the B doubles bracket.Though the Red was unable to take the remaining two titles, the team was represented in the finals of both brackets. In the A doubles finals, the combination of freshman Nina Turudic and sophomore Ryann Young lost on account of illness default. Ordway also made it to the A singles finals, but lost to second seeded Bianca Sanon from Columbia.Next weekend the men’s team will travel to Raleigh, N.C., for a matchup with No. 57 North Carolina State, and the women will begin team play with a home match against Temple on Sunday.
Original Author: Scott Chiusano