From University of Rochester Athletics
The University of Rochester men's tennis team opened its spring semester of competition by splitting a pair of matches on Saturday afternoon at the Goergen Athletic Center.
Rochester (1-2), dropped its opening match to Vassar College (3-1) by a 6-3 score, but responded later in the day with a 9-0 shutout win over Nazareth College (0-2).
In the Vassar match, Sahaj Somani was a double-winner for the Yellowjackets, winning 8-4 at #2 doubles with teammate Tanmay Thakkar, while also posting a straight set 7-5, 6-1 win at #6 singles over Nicolas Demaria.
UR's other point in the came at #1 singles, courtesy of Masaru Fujimaki who won a tight matchup against Vassar's Adam Krueger. Krueger took the opening set 7-6 (5), but Fujimaki rallied with 6-1, 6-4 wins to seal the point.
Fujimaki nearly was a double-winner also, but fell in a back-and-forth match at #1 doubles with teammate Peter Huang. The duo lost 9-8 (7-4) to Krueger and Jeremy Auh. The other doubles point went 8-5 to Vassar's Demaria and Nick Zuczek over Mattias Hartveit and Damani Eubanks.
In singles, UR's Yifan Shen was locked in a tight battled at #5 against Dom Demeterfi, with the Brewers player coming away with a 2-6, 7-6 (9), 10-5 victory. Thakkar and Auh were deadlocked at one set apiece and were 4-4 in the third set when unfortunately Thakkar was forced to retire from the match.
The remaining two matches, at #2 and #4 singles went in straight sets in favor of Vassar.
UR's win in the nightcap against Nazareth was a dominating performance with the Yellowjackets capturing all six singles matches in straight sets while only surrendering three games across all three doubles matches.
In doubles, Jun Yuminaga and Huang were 8-0 winners at #1, Hartveit and Eubanks won 8-2 at #2 and Matt Resnikoff and Sean Chin won 8-1 at #3.
Singles play was equally as impressive, as Leo Koblence led the way with a 6-0, 6-0 win at #5. Chin posted a 6-1, 6-0 victory at #6 while Eubanks won 6-1, 6-1 at #4.
At the top three spots, Yuminaga was a 6-2, 6-4 winner at #1, Huang won 6-1, 6-2 at #2 and Hartveit was a 6-2, 6-1 winner at #3.