By Alexandria Sedlak

The Atlantic 10 Championships (A-10s) is an important time of year for sports teams. It is a conference tournament that includes collegiate teams that compete in Division I of the NCAA. Most of the competing teams are from the East Coast, with some in the Midwest. For men’s tennis, the A-10s takes place at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida. Fordham’s first and only match was on Thursday, April 26. Fordham entered the tournament as the #10 seed and played against Saint Louis University, who was the #7 seed.

Fordham’s match against Saint Louis started off with doubles play and then moved into singles play. The format was the same as the regular season matches, with three doubles matches and six singles matches. The one difference was that, as soon as one team won the four points necessary to win the whole match, all the other individual matches were stopped mid-match. In the end, Fordham lost the doubles point and three singles matches, giving Saint Louis the four points necessary to claim the victory.

Senior Captain Harris Durkovic commented on the match, saying “We were a bit disappointed that we did not make a deeper run into the A-10 tournament, but all of our guys fought hard in their matches.”

In doubles play, the Rams lost both the first and second doubles matches. Freshman Lutwin de Macar and sophomore Fabian Mauritzson lost the first doubles match 2-6, while sophomores Finn Kemper and Jeremy Chung dropped the second doubles match with a score of 4-6. Freshman Max Green and sophomore Allen Thornes were down 4-5 in the third doubles match when the match was stopped. Saint Louis gained the doubles point.

For the singles matches, Saint Louis only needed to win three to take the win over Fordham. The first match to finish was the first singles match. De Macar lost the match against his opponent David Ferragut with a score of 3-6, 3-6. The third singles match was the next one to finish, and the win went to Saint Louis. Mauritzson dropped the match against his opponent Juan Calero, 1-6, 2-6.

With four singles matches still on the court, it was a race to see who would finish next and who the winner would be. The remaining matches were all long and close, with two matches splitting sets. Ultimately, the next match to come off the court was the fifth singles match. Thornes fought hard for points, but eventually lost his match against Justin Nogalski with a score of 6(2)-7, 3-6. This gave Saint Louis the fourth point that they needed to complete their win.

With the loss against Saint Louis in the A-10s, the Fordham Rams ended their tennis season for this year. It was a promising, successful season overall, with the Rams closing it out with a 14-7 record. This was one of their best seasons over the past few years, and the team is looking forward to coming back in the fall to practice hard and have an even better season. Durkovic emphasized this, saying, “We had some great wins this season, over teams like UConn, St. Joe’s, and Hofstra. We improved our Atlantic 10 Conference ranking as well, and finished the season with a winning record for three years in a row, which hasn’t been done at Fordham in a very long time. Our team’s camaraderie is incredible, and the guys are already excited to bring their high energy into the next season.”