Fordham Men’s Tennis continued its season this past weekend with two tournaments on the road.
The first tournament was at Quinnipiac University on Friday night at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center.
The night began with the doubles contests. In the first match, the Fordham duo senior Giorgio Soemano and graduate student Nick Mueller lost to Daniel Velek and Shaurya Sood by a score of 6-2. The Rams tied the score with a win in the second match after senior Nicholas Kanazirev and sophomore Dhillon Virdee-Oakley outlasted Finn Burridge and Csanad Nyaradi 6-4. With the doubles score tied at one apiece, a decisive third game was set with Fordham’s sophomores John Mascone and Stefan Stojanovic against Quinnipiac’s Donovan Brown and Ayato Arakaki. The Rams unfortunately lost this one by a score of 6-4, to lose the doubles point.
The first singles match of the day was Mueller versus Velek. In a close first set, which went to a tiebreaker, Velek narrowly defeated Mueller by a score of 7-6. The second set was not nearly as close, with Mueller losing 6-1.
The second singles match fared much better for Fordham, with Soemarno facing off against Arakaki. Soemarno took the match in straight sets, winning the first one 6-2 before capturing the match with a 6-3 victory.
With the score now 2-1 Quinnipiac, Fordham was within striking distance of tying up the tournament. They sent Kanazirev out to play Sood in the third singles match of the game. Sood took the first set handily by a score of 6-1. Kanazirev knotted up the score at one set each after battling out a tough 7-5 victory in the second set and sending the match to a pivotal third set to determine the winner. In that set, Sood once again took care of business 6-1, putting Fordham in a 3-1 hole on the day and one match away from losing the tournament.
Virdee-Oakley put the team on his back in the fourth match and kept the Rams in the tournament with a close two-set victory. The first went to a tiebreaker, which Virdee-Oakley won, to take the set 7-6. The second set was also a tight battle which Virdee-Oakley again won, this time by a score of 7-5.
With the Fordham win the score sat at 3-2 to Quinnipiac, and the Rams once again within reach of evening up the tournament. In the fifth match of the day, Mascone looked to keep Fordham’s hopes alive against Quinnipiac’s Burridge. Mascone ended up falling in consecutive sets to lose the match and secure the Fordham loss on the day.
In the final match of the day, Brown defeated Fordham senior Bingru Chen in straight sets. After losing the first one 6-1, Chen fought in the second set but eventually lost the tiebreaker to lose 7-6.
Following the loss, Fordham traveled to Little Silver, N.J., to face Monmouth University.
Fordham did not fare well in the doubles matches, losing all three and the point. Their best shot at a win came in the second doubles match, which went to a tiebreaking set.
In the singles matches, Fordham didn’t do much better, losing all six in a sweep.
Unfortunately, Fordham was unable to win a single set in any of the matches.
It was a rough weekend for Fordham Tennis, but they’ll look to bounce back this coming weekend hosting Wagner College on Saturday, March 16.