Tennis Has Mixed Results in Florida; Men Crush Siena

As the Colgate student body departed for their Spring Break destinations around the world, the men’s and women’s tennis teams remained hard at work while changing venues from Hamilton to Fort Meyers, Florida. However, the Florida sun didn’t prove too promising for the women’s team as they dropped three consecutive matches, while the men’s team won one game and lost the other.

The team then headed down to Fort Meyers where they faced NJIT and Florida Gulf Coast University. First, the women faced off against NJIT and lost 6-1. The Raiders couldn’t get going despite senior Erin Fenn and first-year Stephanie Brown winning the second doubles competition 9-8. Unfortunately, first-year Alexandra Erickson was the only other player to win against NJIT as she won in singles play with a score of 2-6, 7-6, and 12-10.

Things didn’t get better for the women as they headed into the match with FGCU. Although the women couldn’t stop the losing streak in the 4-0 defeat, the Fenn and Brown tandem continued to gel as they won 6-5 in the second doubles competition.

Despite the difficult outings, junior Elise DeRose was pleased with what the women accomplished this break.

“The women’s team played two tough matches, but it was definitely a positive week overall. Everyone fought hard and played well in every match,” DeRose said.

Unfortunately, the women could not build from any progress that was made over Spring Break, as the Raiders dropped a Patriot League matchup against Lehigh. The women fell 4-1, despite opening up with a doubles win by DeRose and junior Cameron Williams. DeRose also stepped it up in her first singles matchup, handily defeating Allie Schwartz 6-1, 6-2. DeRose’s victory ended up being the only point the Raiders would earn that afternoon.

The men flew down to Florida to face NJIT and FGCU and had more success than the women’s team. The men took care of business against NJIT in the first match of the trip, winning by the score of 5-2. Doubles pair senior Martin MacIntyre and junior John Nogueras won the first doubles competition 8-4. Junior Michael Yassky and sophomore Jamie Pellechi followed MacIntyre and Nogueras’ lead as they also won the third doubles competition 9-8. The singles play for the men was quite impressive as MacIntyre set the tone for the match by downing Carl Lundquist 6-2 and 7-5. Yassky, sophomore Ruslan Goussiantnikov and first-year Sean Spellberg all managed to win their single matches.

Against FGCU, the men couldn’t recollect themselves after they went into a quick hole, losing all three of the doubles matches. MacIntyre was only one of two Colgate players to win in the singles matches. MacIntyre beat Steve Binninger 3-6, 6-4 and 4-5 (retired), and Goussiantnikov defeated Frank Acierno 4-6, 6-3 and 6-3. Although the men only won three games, they significantly improved from their last year’s performance against a strong FGCU squad.

“I was so proud of the way the guys competed, as it was almost a 4-3 match against a team that shut us out last year,” Head Coach Bobby Pennington said.

Last Tuesday the men rebounded by destroying Siena 7-0. The team looked the best that they have all year, building on the momentum that was gained over Sping Break. Colgate won all three doubles match to grab the doubles point and swept the six singles matches, all in straight sets, for a dominant and convincing victory. The highlight of the day was from the second doubles match, as Goussiantnikov and sophomore Phil Bernasek teamed up for a 8-0 win. The first and third Colgate doubles pairs each won 8-4. In singles play, first-year Connor Feuille won the first match he has played in this spring season, emerging victorious 6-2, 6-1. Overall, Colgate took 72 of 92 games played in singles play against Siena.

Overall, the men improved to 7-6 while the women fell to 5-9. The women will they return to action April 4 against rival Bucknell at home. The men will take for the road against Navy and George Mason this upcoming weekend.