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Strong Start For Rochester At St. Lawrence Fall Classic

Strong Start For Rochester At St. Lawrence Fall Classic
Posted: Sep 10, 2016

From University of Rochester Athletics

Three singles players and two doubles teams are into the semifinals after the first day of competition at the 2016 St. Lawrence Fall Classic.

This tournament is the first action of the 2016-17 season for UR.

Sophomore Masaru Fujimaki and junior Andrew Nunno along with freshman Yifan Shen each made the semis in singles play, with Fujimaki playing in the A bracket and Nunno and Shen playing in the B division. 

In doubles, the teams of Nunno and senior Sam Leeman and Fujimaki and freshman Sahaj Somani each will represent Rochester in the A doubles semifinals.

Fujimaki breezed through his two singles matches in the A bracket, defeating Jon Cohen of Hamilton 8-1 and Dean Sponholz of St. Lawrence 8-3.  He will square off with Jonah Salita of Hobart in the semifinals. 

Leeman won his first round match in singles in the A bracket over Eric Tecce of SLU 8-4, but dropped an 8-1 decision to Minos Stavrakas of Ithaca in the second round. The same fate went to Somani in singles, winning 9-8 (2) over Wes Davis of Ithaca in the opening round before falling 8-2 to Hobart's Alan Dubrovsky.

In the B bracket, Nunno impressed with 8-1 and 8-2 victories in his matches, dispatching Roger Peckham of RIT and Colten Lavery of Ithaca.  In Sunday's semifinals, he will match up with Liam Spiegel of Ithaca.  Joining him in the semis will be Shen who won over Patrick Gray (Hobart) 8-2 and Marco Amendola (St. Lawrence) 8-4.  In his semifinal match, Shen will face Jared Fields of Ithaca.

Rochester's third entry in the B division was freshman Tanmay Thakkar.  He opened with an 8-6 win over Max McKee-Proctor of Hamilton before losing to Fields 8-2.

In C singles, both Alexander Punj and Jun Yuminaga won their opening round match before dropping quarterfinal contests.  Punj defeated Hobart's Patrick Dunk 8-6 while Yuminaga won 8-5 over Max Prestwich of Ithaca.

Nunno and Leeman won two matches in the A doubles flight, topping McKee-Proctor and Sam Farber of Hobart 8-3 before handling Stavrakas and Spiegel of Ithaca 8-4.  Fujimaki and Somani earned a first round bye and then were winners over Dubrovsky and Prestwich of Ithaca 8-5.

In B doubles, Ryan Zu and Damani Eubanks were winners in their first round matchup with Adam Hummel and Jameson Keppeler of Nazareth 8-1 before dropping an 8-2 decision to Jonathan Atwater and Gray of Hobart in the second round.  UR's other B doubles team of Shen and Thakkar lost in the quarters after receiving a first round bye.