NEW HAVEN, Conn. – After nearly three months without any official matches, the Yale men's tennis team returned to the courts on Sunday with a busy schedule. The Bulldogs started their spring season with two matches in one day, as local rivals Sacred Heart and Quinnipiac paid visits to the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center. The extra workload was no trouble for the Elis, as they swept both of their opponents 7-0.
Yale (2-0) started the day with an emphatic win over Sacred Heart (0-1), taking all three doubles matches and then sweeping every singles match in straight sets. Freshman Zachary Krumholz delivered the best performance of all, as he did not drop a game en route to a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 4. Juniors John Huang at No. 1 and Zachary Dean at No. 5 both won 6-0, 6-1.
Against Quinnipiac (0-1) later in the day it was more of the same, as each Yale doubles team won and every singles match was over in two sets. Three singles players finished their matches vs. the Bobcats without dropping a game -- No. 70-ranked junior Marc Powers at No. 1, No. 108-ranked junior Daniel Hoffman at No. 3 and Dean at No. 6.
Alex Dorato, Yale's Cary Leeds Coach of Men's Tennis, utilized his team's depth in the pair of victories. Eight different players played singles matches, with Dean, Hoffman, Huang and Krumholz all going 2-0. Senior captain Erik Blumenkranz played only doubles, coming away with identical 8-3 wins each time -- at No. 1 (with senior Joel Samaha) vs. Sacred Heart and at No. 2 (with sophomore Patrick Chase) vs. Quinnipiac. Chase and sophomore Tommy Ratchford also were part of a pair of doubles wins, teaming together for an 8-7 win at No. 2 against Sacred Heart before Ratchford teamed with Huang for an 8-3 win at No. 3 vs. Quinnipiac.
All told, nine different players saw action in doubles, including an all-freshman pair of Daniel Faierman and Matt Saiontz (who won 8-2 at No. 3 vs. Sacred Heart).
Yale plays at William & Mary and Old Dominion next weekend.
Report by Sam Rubin '95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity
