After winning their first two matches of the season, albeit spaced weeks apart while traversing through a COVID-19 delay, Fordham Men’s Tennis has entered a bit of a dry spell as of late. Following a loss to Temple University one weekend ago, Fordham fell in their latest two matches this past weekend as well, 0-4 against St. John’s University and 2-5 against Concordia College of New York.

First, Fordham headed into Queens to face the surging Red Storm, who improved to 13-1 on the year with the clean sweep of the Rams. St. John’s went ahead and secured the doubles point, defeating the Fordham combinations of juniors Tom Russwurm and Jofre Segarra at second doubles and seniors Alex Makatsaria and Max Green at third, 6-3, 6-2, respectively.

Fordham was at a disadvantage on the day, unable to field competitors in first doubles along with third, fifth and six singles, leading to the abbreviated scoreline. In singles, Djuro Opacic rolled past Fordham senior Fabian Mauritzson, 6-2, 6-0. At second singles, freshman Nicholas Kanazirev fell to Ignacio Garcia and Giuseppe De Camelis rounded out the day by defeating Makatsaria. 

Then came a quick turnaround for Fordham just 24 hours later against Concordia College of New York. Despite not being a household name, Concordia is a force to be reckoned with on the hardcourt. Concordia has not only a perfect 7-0 on the season following the win against Fordham but is ranked 21st overall among Division II teams.

Fordham leaped forward on the Sunday afternoon, including a pair of wins from Green and Makatsaria at third and fourth singles, but that was not enough to overcome the Clippers. Mauritzson and senior Lutwin de Macar won at first doubles, 7-5, but Concordia won the other two matches to steal the singles point.

Tobias Lentz defeated Mauritson at first singles 7-6, 6-2 and Henry Masters downed Kanazirev 6-1, 6-2 at second singles. Outside of the two Fordham wins, de Macar fell in a hard-fought battle that ended in a third-set tiebreak against William Nilsson for a final line of 6-7, 7-6, 1-0 (10-8). The final point went Concordia’s way, 7-6, 6-2, over Russworm at sixth singles.

With the two losses, Fordham falls to 4-4 on the season before heading into another pair of matches this weekend. The first will be against St. Bonaventure University and the latter versus Queens College, ultimately culminating in the season’s final match before the Atlantic 10 Championship against Eastern Florida State College.