By Alexandria Sedlak
Fordham men’s tennis team opened their 2017 season with a tournament against Davidson College on Saturday, Jan. 28. The teams played at Life Time Athletic in Harrison, NY, Fordham’s indoor home courts. This one-on-one tournament consisted of nine different matches, three of them being doubles and six of them being singles. Fordham struggled in its first match, ultimately ending in a 7-0 loss.
In doubles matches, freshman Allen Thornes and senior Tomas Cosmai lost the first doubles match against Davidson’s Axel Fries and J.B. Gough with a score of 2-6. Next, freshman Fabian Mauritzson and senior Nick Borak lost the second doubles point with a score of 1-6 against Davidson’s Shamael Chaudry and Jack Riazzi. In the third doubles position, sophomore Victor Li and freshman Jeremy Chung played against Davidson’s Artem Khrapko and David Hager. The match reached a tied score of 3-3 before it was stopped. Davidson thus won the doubles point.
In the first singles position, senior Tomas Cosmai lost to Davidson’s Shamael Chaudry with a score of 2-6, 2-6. Sophomore Victor Li played the second singles position against Davidson’s David Hager. Li fell with a score of 1-6, 1-6. Senior Nick Borak played third singles against Davidson’s Artem Khrapko, with a final score of 0-6, 2-6. In the fourth singles position, freshman Fabian Mauritzson lost to Davidson’s J.B. Gough with a score of 5-7, 2-6. Freshman Jeremy Chung played fifth singles against Davidson’s Axel Fries. He fought hard in the first set, but ultimately fell with a final score of 6 (6)-7, 1-6. Finally, freshman Allen Thornes took the sixth singles position against Davidson’s Jordan Hart. It was an extremely close match as the players split sets. In the end, Thornes fell with a score of 6-4, 2-6, and 8-10 in the tiebreaker.
“Being a freshman, I went out relying on the energy of my teammates, especially the upperclassmen which helped me dial in and compete,” said Thornes. “I thought we all fought well as a team by showing a lot of grit against a higher ranking Davidson team. I know that each and every one of us will carry this energy throughout the rest of the season, and it’s going to be a great year moving forward for Fordham tennis.”
“I thought the team competed well out there today. We proved that we can compete with the top teams in the conference,” said Cosmai. “However, we still have a tremendous amount of work to do before the conference tournament. We will look to readjust, regroup, and learn from this. We will not let this define our season. This is simply a learning lesson.”The Rams return to action next weekend, on February 5, against Saint Peter’s University. They will be travelling to Jersey City for the tournament.
