The Fordham men’s tennis team played two matches this past weekend, dropping both of them.
The Rams started off the weekend with a 6-1 loss to St. Bonaventure University on Saturday. Like Fordham’s first match of the season, after taking the doubles point to open up the day, they followed it up with six straight singles losses.
The day began with senior Giorgio Soemarno and graduate student Nick Mueller handily beating the Bonnie duo of Rasmus Egehus and Archi Graham by a score of 6-1. The Rams followed up the opening win with another, this time in a much closer match with senior Nicholas Kanazirev and sophomore Dhillon Virdee-Oakley outlasting Connor Turner and Hugo Cochlin by a score of 7-6. With the doubles point already secured before the final match, the Rams, with some breathing room, sent sophomore John Mascone and senior Bingru Chen to face Jean Marrero and Anargha Ganguly. The pair fell to Marrero and Ganguly by a score of 4-6.
The first singles competition had St. Bonaventure’s Graham face off against Fordham’s Mueller in a back-and-forth contest. Graham took the first set by a score of 6-2, but Mueller fought back in the second to win the set 6-4 and tie the match up at one set apiece. In the deciding set, Graham edged out Mueller in a close battle, winning by a score of 6-4 to take the first singles point and knot the score up at one for the day.
In the second singles match, the Bonnies sent Egehus to play the Rams’ Kanazirev. It was another close match between these two, with two sets played, but Egehus came out on top in both of them. Egehus won the first set by a score of 6-3 before finishing off the match with a 6-4 win in the second set to sweep the match and give St. Bonaventure a 2-1 lead on the day.
For the third singles competition, Turner competed against Virdee-Oakley in another back-and-forth match. Turner outlasted Virdee-Oakley in the first set, narrowly beating him by a score of 6-4. In the second set, Virdee-Oakley took handily in blowout fashion by a score of 6-1, setting up a match-deciding set for the second of three singles matches. In the set, Turner defeated Virdee-Oakley by a score of 6-2, giving St. Bonaventure another win and a 3-1 lead.
In the fourth match, Cochlin for St. Bonaventure dueled Mascone of Fordham in another closely contested match-up. This match saw Cochlin barely overmatch Mascone in back-to-back sets, with Cochlin winning both sets by a score of 6-4. The Bonnie win was the fourth for them on the day, securing them the win with still two more matches to play.
The fifth and sixth matches of the day also went to the St. Bonaventure representatives. First was Ganguly defeating Chen in consecutive sets, 6-1 and then 6-3, for the fifth straight Bonnie win. In the final match, Marrero beat Stefan Stojanovic, also in straight sets. However, the Rams did not go down without a fight, as after Stojanovic lost to Marrero in the first set by a score of 6-2, the second set was much closer but still went to Marrero 6-4. The Marrero win completed the sweep for the Bonnies in the singles competition.
The day ended for the Rams with a 6-1 loss.
It was a quick turnaround for Fordham as they played against Duquesne University the next day.
The day started with a doubles match win as the duo of Mueller and Soemarno defeated Tamirlan Teberikov and Bode Vance 6-4. Two consecutive losses followed the win. The first was at the hands of Kaipo Marshall and Jin Dassanayake, beating Kanazirev and Virdee-Oakley 4-6. The second was another 4-6 loss after Keita Duclos and Alfrendo Vogelaar beat Chen and Mascone.
Fordham didn’t fare any better in the singles matches, losing all six in a sweep.
The first match was Marshall facing off against Mueller. The first set went to Marshall easily, winning 6-1. Mueller bounced back in the second set to knot the match up at one set apiece and send it to a match-deciding third set. Marshall barely won the last set, winning 6-4 after a tough battle.
The second match was almost identical to the first one as Teberikov beat Kanazirev, also in three sets. The first set went to Teberikov by a score of 6-3. The second set also ended in a 6-3 score, this time to Kanazirev. The third and final set, once again, was a 6-3 finish, with Teberikov winning once again to take the match.
In the third match of the day, the Fordham representative also lost in three close sets. Duclos and Virdee-Oakley faced off, with Duclos getting the best of him. The first set went to Virdee-Oakley by a score of 6-4. Duclos, however, went on to win the following two sets, by a score of 6-3 and 6-2, to take the match, the third singles win in a row for Duquesne.
The last three matches all went to the Dukes, and all in sweeps.
The first of the three was between Vogelaar and Mascone. Vogelaar won first 6-3 and then again in quicker fashion, 6-0. The second to last match saw Dassanayake defeat Chen, first by a score of 6-1 and then in a closer set 6-4. In the final match of the day, Vance and Stojanovic faced off in a single-set match that ended in an 8-4 final.
The two losses put the team at a record of 0-3 overall for the season after losing last week against Boston University. They’ll hope to get on the right track and get their first win of the season in their next matchup against Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn., on Saturday, Feb. 17.
