By Eddie Young
Sports Editor
The College’s men’s and women’s tennis teams each had stellar weekends, with them both defeating Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Feb. 23 and Union College on Feb. 24. These two wins gave both the men and women records of 3-0 on the young spring season.
The weekend started with the men’s team hosting No. 26 RPI on Friday. The Lions witnessed a bit of a scare early on, as they lost the first match of the day. The talented duo of sixth year Matthew Michibata and sophomore Harrison Maitland-Carter fell 8-5 to Andy Zhu and Aidan Drover-Mattinen of RPI. These doubles pairings have a bit of history against one another, as they faced off in the final of the ITA Regional Championships this past fall, but Michibata and Maitland-Carter ended up victorious in that matchup.
After that loss, the College did not lose another match in the day, winning the next eight. The doubles pairing of junior captain Dorian Makarski and freshman Aayush Kishore handled business, winning their match 8-5, and sophomores Alberto Thomas and Brett Schuster also took home an 8-3 doubles win.
All six members of the men’s team went on to win their singles matches, giving the College an 8-1 victory, and giving RPI their first loss.
Later in the day, the women’s team hosted No. 36 RPI. They were able to get out to an early lead, as all three doubles pairings won their respective matches, giving the College three crucial victories.
There was a bit of a scare in the single’s matches as RPI was able to steal two wins, but the other four Lions did their job and were able to propel the College to a decisive 7-2 victory, handing RPI their first loss of the season.
The women then had a quick turnaround, as they had to host Union College the next afternoon for their Pink Match. Union got ahead in this match early, as freshman duo Gabriella Robinson and Prisha Priyadarshini fell in the opening doubles match. However, their teammates had their backs, as senior captain Chase Eisenberg and freshman Zoey Albert won their match 8-5, and junior captain Aira Abalos and freshman Marcella Warner won 8-4. The College had a 2-1 lead going into the six singles matchups.
Union was able to get two more wins out of these matches, but Abalos, Albert, Priyadarshini and Warner all won in straight sets, leading the Lions to a 6-3 victory.
To close out the weekend, the men’s team defeated Union in dominating fashion. They won all nine matches, and there were only a few close calls.
Thomas and Schuster had to go to a tiebreaker during their doubles match, but ended up winning that break 7-3. Fifth year Adrian Tsui lost the second set during his singles match, but won the first and third, giving him a victory. No other Lion lost a set during a single singles match, and many were won easily.
This 9-0 victory gave the College their third win on the season, and Union’s first loss.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will be looking ahead to next weekend, as they will host Franklin and Marshall College on March 2 and Rochester Institute of Technology on March 3.
