After a strong week of practice, Cornell men’s tennis traveled to Dartmouth last weekend to take on some of the best talent in the Ivy League and the region. Last time around when Cornell visited its Ivy League rival, it won a 4-3 match which was crucial for its title push last season.
The team had a strong start in doubles with senior Pietro Rimondini and junior Denton Ho leading the way. Behind aggressive serving and a relentless attack, the duo conquered the hometown pair of Alejandro Quiles and Anders Gibbons, 6-1.
One win against their Ivy foes wasn’t enough — on day two, Rimondini and Ho defeated the Dartmouth team of Pierce Widdecombe and David Horneffer, 6-4. Their only loss of the weekend came against Ryan Cheng and Cody Lin of Yale, a tight 6-4 set.
On the other side of the bracket, junior Evan Bynoe teamed up with senior Joe McAllister. The two had avenged the Red’s previous loss to Yale by defeating Cheng and Lin, 6-3, as well as earning a 6-2 win over Boston University. They then faced Widdecmbe and Horneffer, falling to the Dartmouth duo, 6-4.
Representing the Red in singles were Ho, Rimondini, Bynoe and freshman Matthew Druyanoff. Getting his first taste of Ivy League action, Druyanoff fought hard in a three-set match against Dartmouth’s Sacha Pritzker. After losing the second set, Druyanoff performed his best when it mattered most coming out on top, 6-3, 3-6, 11-9. In the next round, the freshman looked to keep it rolling against Harvard’s Lane Leschly. The young Cornellian played hard but ended up on the losing end, 6-3, 6-2.
Ho continued his excellent weekend in singles. The junior was clutched in his match against Bryant University’s Guido Argentini winning the closely contested match, 7-6(5), 7-5. His weekend ended with three disappointing loses to Bryant’s Jorge Isaias Ortiz-Garcia, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1, 1-0 loss to Quiles and a close 6-4, 7-6(4) loss to Lin of Yale.
In his only singles action of the weekend, Rimondini rolled over Brown’s Roger Chou, beating him swiftly, 6-0, 6-1.
Picking up right where his teammate left off, Bynoe faced Alan Yim of Harvard. After dropping the first set, the junior rallied and put together a strong second half of the match. He came out on top 4-6, 6-0, 10-3.
“I was very happy with how I was able to maintain my focus and adapt my game plan for each opponent I faced,” Bynoe said.
With two Ivy seasons under his belt, Bynoe knows his Ivy competitors well, which helped him against Dartmouth’s Gibbons. Bynoe cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 victory. He later won his third consecutive singles match on the last day of the tournament, once again against Dartmouth, handling Alejandro Quiles 6-1, 6-2.
“Moving forward, I’d like to strengthen my net play,” Bynoe said. “That would help me a lot in both my singles and doubles matches.”
The Red will have a brief break now only about a month into its fall season. Coming up on Oct. 17, the team will be represented in Philadelphia as some of the best players in the Northeast compete for a chance to take home some more hardware.