It was weekend of wins and losses for the Cornell men’s and women’s tennis teams. While the women’s team was able to secure a 5-2 victory over St. John’s, the men’s team was on the road and split their two matches. On Saturday, the men were able to push past Nebraska, 4-1, but fell to Drake, 4-2, on Sunday.
In their victory, the women’s team started out strong and continued to push for the win. The team now stands at 7-5 and is moving forward with a stretch of home games.
“After coming off of a couple tough losses the past couple of weeks, our team had to refocus, make some adjustments and put extra work in practice,” said senior Dena Tanebaum. “I think that really helped us turn it around in the matches this weekend.”
The women lost close 4-3 matches to West Virginia and Boston College in two of their last three matches. After rebounding with a 7-0 victory over the University of Maryland Baltimore County, this weekend’s match seemed to put the team back on the right path.
“I think everyone on the team is doing a really good job of focusing on their individual needs as well as the team needs to keep improving for each match,” Tanebaum said. “With only a few matches left until our Ivy season, we need to continue working hard and raising the bar in practices and use these few last non-conference matches to continue to make those little adjustments on the court to minimize our weaknesses and capitalize on our strengths.”
The men’s team traveled this weekend and fought against two non-conference competitors. In the win against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Cornell was bolstered by wins from junior Chris Vrabel and senior Stefan Vinti, who played in the fourth and fifth singles positions respectively.
“Although we did not win all three matches, we felt that we took steps in the right direction,” said head coach Silviu Tanasoiu. “We are understanding more and more as a team that taking the initiative makes a world of a difference. We had several spots throughout the week where we took the initiative in playing our brand of discipline tennis and it paid off immensely. We need to stay true to our identity and compete at every position with that mindset.”
Continuing their Midwest trip, the Red traveled to Des Moines, Iowa to take on the Drake Bulldogs. The team was outplayed in the 4-2 loss, with their two wins coming from the racquets of junior Colin Sinclair and freshman Karlo Lozic.
This loss put the team back to a 5-8 record as they get closer and closer to facing their Ivy League conference rivals. Despite the loss, the team feels that they are making progress and are learning from their losses
Tanasoiu commented on one standout moment when the Red was resilient against Drake.
“Being down against Drake, 1-0, after the doubles point, and three breaks on three different courts, we came back firing after that and came within two points from winning the match,” Tanasoiu said. “Mounting that comeback by playing the right way is what stands out to me. The guys could see that, when multiplied by every player, disciplined tennis never disappoints.”
Both teams will be in action next weekend competing in home matches. The women’s team will go up against Stony Brook and Niagara, while the men welcome Binghamton on Sunday.