Fordham’s men’s tennis team has had a rough go lately, losing five in a row after a successful spring break trip. This past weekend, they looked to bounce back at home against Saint Joseph’s University and New York University before heading to Florida to face Eastern Florida State College in their last regular season match.
After being locked in a 3-3 tie heading into the day’s final match, freshman Stephan Mozhaev played hero with his first collegiate win to break the tie and break Fordham’s losing streak with a 4-3 victory.
The day began with the Rams down 0-1 after losing the doubles point. In first doubles, St. Joseph’s Othman Bezzaz and Ernesto Ruy beat senior Nicholas Kanazirev and sophomore Dhillon Virdee-Oakley 6-3. Fordham bounced back when sophomore John Mascone and senior Giorgio Soemarno took care of John Butler and Eli Gan-Dy by the same score, 6-3, and sent it to a point-deciding third doubles match. In a hard-fought battle, the Hawks prevailed for a 7-5 win, with Stergios Papadopoulos and Justus Agbo beating sophomore Stefan Stojanovic and senior Bingru Chen.
With Fordham now down 0-1, they moved into singles play. In third singles, the Rams evened up the score with a Virdee-Oakley 6-3 and 6-2 straight-set win over Bezzaz. Fordham took the lead after Mascone also had a straight-set win over Papadopoulos, both sets ending in a 6-1 score. When the second singles concluded, St. Joseph’s tied the match again at two apiece with a Ruy win over Soemarno in two sets.
With the score now 2-2, fifth singles finished next with Stojanovic overcoming a first set 6-3 defeat to Jack Campbell to come back to win the second set 6-0 before closing out with a tiebreak point 7-3 victory to win the third set 7-6 and put the Rams back in front. With Kanazirev holding the keys to a match-clinching win in first singles, he fell behind 0-1 with a first-set loss to Agbo before retaliating with a 6-3 victory in set two. The match came down to another tie-breaking point, with the Hawks this time coming out in front with a 7-5 Agbo victory to win the set and the point.
The match then came down to a nailbiter in sixth singles, with Mozhaev seeking his first collegiate win of his young career. He went down 1-0 after Gan-Dy won a tie-breaking point 7-1 to win the first set 7-6 before Mozhaev bounced back with a tight 7-5 victory of his own. With the match coming down to the final set of the day, Mozhaev put his team on his back, coming out in front with a 6-4 victory. The Fordham 4-3 win snapped their five-game slide. Following the nail-biter, the Rams had a much easier duel with NYU, handily defeating them by a score of 6-1.
Fordham began the day by winning two of the three doubles matches, claiming the point. Stojanovic and Chen beat Devan Sabapathy and Zachary Freier by a score of 6-4, while Soemarno and Mascone took care of Jingyuan Chen and Louis Frowein, 6-3. Fordham was on the verge of sweeping the doubles point, but Kanzirev and Virdee-Oakley lost a tiebreaker 7-3 to lose the set 7-6 against Boren Zheng and Alexander Lee.
In singles, there were multiple close bouts, with the Rams taking five of the six. Virdee-Oakley began at third singles, winning in straight sets, 6-3 and 6-4, over Frowein. The hero from the last match, Mozhaev, continued the team’s success with a 6-1 and 7-5 defeat of Freier.
NYU got their only win of the day when Chen beat Soemarno in a close battle that went to three sets. Fordham’s Chen clinched the match victory with a win over Sabapathy 7-6 and 6-4. The Rams closed out the day with wins from Kanazirev and Mascone.
The Rams traveled to face Eastern Florida State College and lost 0-7 to snap their win streak.
With the two wins and one loss, Fordham concludes their regular season with a 7-13 record. With the Atlantic 10 Championships this coming weekend.
