Members of the New York University men's tennis team competed at the Haverford/Swarthmore Invitational on Saturday and Sunday, September 27 and 28, in Swarthmore, PA. The Violets competed against members of Haverford College, Hamilton College, and Swarthmore College
The no-team-scoring contest included singles and double matches. The Violets walked away victorious in three doubles matches and three singles matches on the day.
In the first session against Haverford, the duos of Bryan Hui and Philip Martin, Jeh-Lei Fan and Rahul Sundaresan, and Andy Chen and Nikita Makaed all won their matches. Hui and Martin dominated, winning 8-0, while Sundaresan/Fan won 8-6 and Chen/Makaed won 8-5.
In singles, Boris Slesarev had a thrilling three-set match against a member from Haverford. Slesarev won the first set, but couldn't close out the match. The Violets were win-less in the singles portion against the Fords.
"We have a lot of newcomers on the team and we mixed and matched them to get a better idea of how they would compete," Assistant Coach Ron Moreno explained. "We had some good play, but our guys need to learn how to win and not be afraid to take some chances."
The Violets played again later, this time against Hamilton, where NYU was victorious in three singles matches. Martin and Sundaresan won their second matches of the day, with the former winning 6-2, 6-1, and the latter 6-4, 6-4. Slesarev redeemed himself after losing in three earlier with a 6-3, 7-5 win.
"It's a learning curve to prepare for the spring season and to get our top guys ready for the ITA's next week," Moreno said. "Regardless of what happens tomorrow, I expect the team to take a step forward."
On the second day, the Violets struggled against Swarthmore, only winning one match. Martin was victorious again, winning 6-1, 7-6 in the #1 singles spot. Hui in the #2 singles spot pushed his opponent to three sets, but was unable to win the match.
The Violets return to the court for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Regional Championships beginning on Friday, October 3, in Saratoga Springs, NY.
