Faierman and Svenning Bright Spots in 5 -2 Loss to Loyola Marymount
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Yale men's tennis team opened its California tour by squaring off against Loyola Marymount on its home courts in Los Angeles. Although the LMU squad came into the match on Saturday with a 5 - 6 overall record (compared to Yale at 9 - 3), it had posted back-to-back wins over ranked opponents and looked like one of the toughest teams Yale would face so far this season.
With the Elis switching up their usual doubles lineup and working out new combinations, Loyola Marymount capitalized quickly and grabbed the doubles point within the hour. Although the doubles round was largely disappointing for Yale, the promising freshmen pairing of Fedor Andrienko and Stefan Doehler was a bright spot yet again, stepping up to the No.1 doubles position and performing admirably in a tough 6-3 loss.
LMU got off to a similarly strong start in singles, with its No. 3 and No. 4 players too strong on the day for freshmen Ziqi Wang and Doehler, who both fell in straight sets. Yale quickly came to life, however, after senior Daniel Faierman produced an impressive straight set victory over LMU's Othar Kordsachia in the No. 5 singles position. Following Faierman was junior Martin Svenning, who managed to post a gutsy 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4) victory at No. 2 singles; this result extends his current winning streak to four matches, all of which have been hard fought at the top of the bulldogs' lineup. After taking his first set 6-3, Andrienko also looked to have the upper hand against LMU's No.6 player Luke Bohuslav, but the Yale freshman lost momentum near the finish and fell in three sets.
At No.1 singles, Yale's Tyler Lu battled well and forced a third set with LMU sophomore standout Charles Boyce, who came into their match with just two losses in his last eleven contests. With LMU having already clinched victory, however, Lu and Boyce played an abbreviated third set with a standard tiebreaker at two games all. Facing arguably his toughest opponent so far this season, the Elis' No.1 singles player came just two points short of victory in a highly contested 7-5 tiebreaker.
Despite the loss, the Bulldogs gained some valuable experience in this match and have shown that they can rise to the challenge against a strong opponent. This experience will certainly play a role in Yale's next match against Portland (7 - 2) on Sunday.
Report by Cameron Ferguson '18, Yale Sports Publicity
